Finale
by Spacefille
Summary: When Dib finally captures Zim, he unwittingly sets off a chain of events that will change his life forever... ZADR.
1. Chapter 1

**Finale **

**Date**: May 2003 - March 2012 (March 2006)  
**Rating**: Strong "R" for sexual content and language.  
**Warning**: ZADR fic. (ZADR stands for Zim and Dib romance.) If you don't like it please don't read it.  
**Author's Notes**: Inspiration for aliens in heat does not, in fact, come from anything I've read in the Invader Zim fandom thus far, but rather from the DragonBall Z heat theories I kept on coming up with. Consider this to be an Irken heat theory then. Lastly I am spelling "skool" properly in this fic. Maybe they figure out how to spell school properly once they hit middle school. :D  
**Special Thanks to**: J. Random Lurker for her help betaing this story and all my reviewers for their kind, helpful and encouraging reviews.

**Disclaimer**: Invader Zim was created by Jhonen Vasquez and belongs to Nickelodeon, not me, and I am not making any profit off of the following work of fiction.

~~~  
Chapter 1  
~~~

He had tried to forget about him. Zim, who was not a human boy like everyone thought, but was rather a century old alien invader. Or rather a century old INSANE alien invader- which explained why the earth had yet to be conquered. The alien had failed in his plans of world domination even after being on the planet almost four years.

When the alien had landed and took up residence among humans that first year, then made himself part of Dib's fifth grade class, Dib had been the only one who knew the alien was in fact that - an alien. This wasn't because Dib was especially smart (which he was) but rather because people in general were rather stupid. They laughed at Dib for even suggesting it. Being laughed at was something Dib was used to, and it happened a lot. He had no one, not one person who would believe him, though he had seen a girl named Gretchen give him interested looks from time to time. Unfortunately the girl was shy and afraid of torment herself and because of it she never approached or defended Dib.

Dib didn't care. He was used to being alone. Or at least he kept on telling himself that. As the year wore on, and the seasons changed and grade six came and went, Dib found himself growing increasingly frustrated. He even tried to forget about Zim for a while, by dropping all things he did that were even remotely associated with the paranormal, and tried real science for at time. That actually worked for a bit and made for a peaceful time of things, as the alien seemed reluctant to do something even remotely close to trying to take over the world when Dib wasn't around to stop him. However it didn't come any closer to curing Dib of his secret fascination with the tiny Irken Invader. He just hid it better.

In grade seven relations got hostile again. Dib, who by this point had decided at the tender age of 13 that humans were not worth his time to try to save, also came to the same conclusion of Zim. Oh he still wanted to get the alien on an autopsy table, but for his own purposes. He didn't want someone else to open Zim up and poke around inside... he wanted to do it himself. At the same time Zim was about the closest thing he had to a friend, though at the time he would never admit it. They DID seem to have some sort of twisted understanding... Zim would make mock attempts at taking over the world, just to get a rise out of Dib. At the same time Dib would run around and howl "nonsense" about Zim being an alien. They made up a new game. Dib would try to catch Zim and used all sorts of creative ways to do so... Zim always escaped, but sometimes only by the skin of his teeth, so to speak. The teachers in the junior high school they went to thought they were quite literally mad... and some had even gone as far as to label Dib as dangerously insane. After all what were they to think of a student who did figurative backflips trying to capture a fellow student? And what were they to think of a student who could make metal spider-like legs sprout out of his back pack to get away?

As the years passed and their game continued, Dib started to have doubts. He truly did want to poke around at the alien's insides... but if he had ever caught Zim, he wasn't sure if he could go through with it. He didn't think he could give up the thrill of the chase... the lively spark of excitement in Zim's eyes as he fought and escaped from him yet again- even the insults he would miss. He had gotten so used to being called a miserable wormbaby and the way that Zim said "human" like it was a disease Dib had to over come. Could he really destroy that?

He preferred not to think of it.

It all changed again at the beginning of grade nine. Zim stopped coming to school as often as he did before. Dib didn't know whether this was just because he had forgotten that school was back in session five days a week instead of the two or three days he showed up for... or because Zim was working on yet another plan for world domination... or what. He did know one thing though... Zim not coming to school made it harder for Dib to try to capture the little Irken Invader.

Then in late November, Zim stopped coming out of his house permanently. He stopped coming to school. He stopped taking Gir, his insane little robot dog, out for walks to get food. When Dib inquired to the whereabouts of the small alien disguised as a boy, the teachers would look at him blankly, or say something to the effect that he had moved. Which was completely not true, Zim's house still stood exactly where it was before, undisturbed, and lights still streamed from it late at night.

Finally Dib decided to take matters into his own hands.

**Year 1, Week 1** **- **

He prepared all that night. And all the next, for at least a week. He amassed all the knowledge he had about Irkens and threw it all together for his big break in. For that was what he planned to do... break into Zim's little fortress, his poorly disguised base, and finally capture himself an alien.

His plan, amazingly enough, went off without a hitch. He neutralized the lawn gnomes with sound frequencies that made them miss fire and hit each other. He scaled the wall of Zim's house with some nylon rope and a grappling hook and broke into the roof window, where he knew Zim had no security net. Once inside the roof he waited patiently beside Zim's Voot Cruiser, his laptop connected to the wires that ran in through the ceiling as he hacked into the foreign systems. He was searching for a way to turn off the computer. This was dangerous and the last time he had attempted a direct interface with Zim's house computer he had set off all sorts of alarms. Finally after careful infiltration and familiarizing himself with the system he found the codes... not to shut the computer down, but even better... one that recognized him as someone who was supposed to be in this house. He entered them. Then, grinning, he opened up a man sized hole in the ceiling and carefully inspected the main floor of the building from his high vantage point.

Gir sat below him on the couch... watching something on TV. Dib pulled an odd gun shaped device out of his bag. It was a smaller version of the sound frequency wave object he had used on the lawn gnomes. If he had figured this out properly, Gir would be rendered unconscious and thus useless when he pressed the button.

He did so and as predicted, the little robot jerked once, then slumped over, his metal head bowed towards his lap.

Good. One thing down. Now for the Invader...

Soundlessly Dib jumped down from the ceiling, landing in a crouch on the floor. For a moment he remained there, then stood. He walked over to the garbage can entrance of the lair and though a couple taps on his key board, called up a plan of the base. It took a little bit of work, but he finally convinced the computer it wanted to show him where Zim was. _'Good,'_ he thought to himself after a moment. The house's computer complied and he could see where Zim was, _and_ what he had to do to get to him. After a couple more taps he commanded the elevator to ignore him, and reached into his bag. He took out the nylon rope he had scaled the outer wall with and tied it to the corner of the couch. Then he tested it, and, upon finding it sturdy, tossed it down the empty elevator shaft. He pulled out a utility belt from his bag as well and tied it around his waist, then clipped it to the nylon rope. Then, carefully, he backed himself down the dark hole of the unoccupied shaft.

Getting the rest of the way to Zim was amazingly easy for Dib. After a small amount of time crawling about in dusty, dirty, utility-like shafts he finally came to a small hall with a door at the end of it.

Now the point was to get into the room without Zim noticing. After a couple moments of contemplation, Dib pulled out his laptop and ran a schematic on the room Zim was currently in. It told him that there was an access tube that would make it possible for him to come up through a little hole at the back of the room.

Dib did just that. He reached the hole and quietly pushed up and over the covering. After a moment he stuck his head into the room. His eyes instantly searched out and located Zim. The alien stood above some machinery at the front of the room, his back to the human. Dib climbed carefully out of the hole and silently closed the lid of the port. There were some large long hollow tubes off to his side, of which looked like they could be for holding live animals and humans in suspended animation. Dib shook his head ever so slightly as he snuck over to them. He had had the unfortunate luck to have been placed in one of those once upon a time. It had been a little less than pleasant experience.

Ducking behind one of the tubes, he pressed his back against it and slowly crept around it. He had to get closer to the alien if he wanted to capture him...

At the same time Zim stopped whatever it was he was doing with the control panels he was working on, and shouted something out loud. "No!" He yelled. "There has GOT to be some way to reverse it..."

"Negative," The computer replied with a self-suffering sigh.

That wasn't the correct answer. Dib cautiously stuck his head out from behind the tube and watched as Zim angrily beat his fists against the offending console. "Well TRY HARDER!" He screamed. "You incompetent _useless_ excuse for a..." He whirled about suddenly, and their eyes met. Dib froze. It took a moment, but then Dib's presence registered and the Irken's eyes widened.

Dib ducked back behind the canister again and swore softly under his breath. He was too late however, and he could hear rather than see Zim react. "Intruder!" the alien yelled at his computer. "Intruder alert! Computer!"

"There are no intruders in here," Was the computers' blithe reply.

"What?" Zim gasped. "There IS an intruder in here, he's right over ther-" Again Zim stopped short, and Dib heard the little Invader scream out something intelligible. At the same time he was running along behind the canisters with a weapon he had grabbed from his backpack clenched in his hands, ducked low and waiting for the perfect shot. Finally he stopped and took it, aiming and hoping beyond hope that the shot would hit home.

He was in luck. Zim had turned again, away from Dib, and he appeared to be running in the opposite direction... towards the exit. The shot hit the little alien in the arm. Crying out in surprise, Zim stumbled, clenching at his arm momentarily before deciding to sprout his advantage... his spider legs. He leapt up, towards the ceiling. At the same time Dib took another blind shot, hoping that this one would hit home as well.

It did. This time the pulse ray from Dib's gun hit Zim in the center of his chest. The Irken dropped like a stone, seriously winded. The spider legs retracted again on reflex.

That was Dib's queue and the boy darted forwards, shoving his gun back into his pocket and grabbing the taser he had prepared for just this moment as he ran. Zim looked up at him, but their eyes met for only a millisecond before Dib thrust the taser into the back of Zim's neck.

The alien tensed as the current ran through him, then slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Getting Zim out of his base proved to be easier than getting in, to Dib's great surprise and relief. Gir was still un-operational as he walked by the living room area of the top floor of the house. He walked right out of there, down the walk, and all the way home again. Nobody seemed to mind or care that he had an odd lumpy sack thrown across his shoulders. Even Gaz, his grumpy thirteen year old sister, didn't look up from the TV when he walked by, only grumbled something about dinner being in the fridge.

He had more important things to worry about than dinner. He went all the way downstairs, to his dad's main lab, then off to the side to where a smaller lab resided. This one was where his dad, the great Professor Membrane, kept all of his older equipment. The professor had long before he had given it to his son in hopes that he would one day become interested in real science. Dib hardly used it, except now...

He dropped the sack unceremoniously on the floor and, after a quick check inside to make sure the alien was still unconscious but also still alive, he set about prepping the lab.

He felt an odd thrill of excitement carry through him as he cleaned off a laboratory table and began to pull out the equipment he needed. Finally. Finally he was going to get what he wanted. He was going to see INSIDE the Irken. He would get to see how the alien ticked. How his squiggly spooch functioned. How he breathed. How he did every single function Dib had been fascinated in finding out about since day one.

One day at a time of course. First things first. He wasn't so stupid as to assume that he would just pick up a scalpel and started cutting. Oh no. One day maybe when he was in grade five he would have started there, but now he was an older, more wizened paranormal investigator. He had a whole lot of pre-cutting prep work to do...

And one of the most important steps he had was to disable that pak. He didn't want to deal with Zim's spider legs, which seemed to have the wonderful ability to do everything from cut through solid steel to scale 90' walls.

Once the bed was prepared with reinforced bonds, Dib walked over to the sack and hefted the small unconscious alien out of it. First he laid him flat on his stomach and cinched up the straps that held the aliens' legs, arms and neck down. Finally he went over to the lab bench and picked out an odd gun like contraption.

The odd gun like contraption was actually a powerful equivalent to a blowtorch. Placing a pair of goggles over his eyes to protect them he fired it up and very carefully ran the torch over the ports of Zim's pack. He received a bit of a shock when the Irken moaned and shifted slightly and he jumped, nearly burning Zim's skin with the small blue flame. Carefully Dib picked up the taser again and got the Irken before he could completely come around. After that was done Dib completed torching the pack shut and turned it off. He placed it on the bench beside the bed. Then he undid Zim's bonds and flipped him back onto his front. Just as quickly he re did up the Irken's restraints, laying him out spread eagled on the bed.

He paused. For a long moment he inspected his Irken prisoner. For some reason he felt an odd thrill of guilt. _'You can't do this,'_ A voice seemed to speak at the back of his mind_. 'He's done nothing to you... recently at least...'_

Dib snorted, pushing the irritating thoughts away quickly. _'What are you talking about?'_ He argued back with himself. _'Of course he's done things against me. Four years of pain and frustration are HIS fault... He's nothing but a menace who ought to be disposed of... he's a real threat to your whole entire race. You know that...'_

Even so, Dib was having the hardest time convincing himself of that fact. Finally after coming to a stalemate in his mental argument, he opted for just sitting in a chair beside the table and waiting. He didn't know why he waited, but he did want to see Zim's face when he realized the position he was in. Then he could jeer at him. _'Haha, Zim I've WON...'_

Lucky for him he didn't have to wait long. Zim came to with an odd little moan that sounded a bit like a whimper and made a couple of subconscious jerks at his bonds. After a moment the alien's large red eyes snapped open.

Dib smiled down at him. "Hello," He greeted him casually.

Zim's eyes widened. After catching that first moment of realization on the alien's face, Dib nonchalantly turned away, going back over to a lab bench to gather up some equipment. He could hear rather than see Zim's surprised intake of breath and jerking sounds as the Irken tested his restraints. Finally he calmed and quieted, then issued a threat.

"Let me go stink beast!" Zim hissed at him. "Or else!"

Dib afforded him a glance out of the corner of his eye as he sorted his equipment. The Irken was straining against all his bonds at once, his ruby red eyes glaring at him as he did so.

Dib merely smiled back at him and continued sorting, until he finally found what he was looking for. "Aha," He said as he picked up his new weapon... a needle.

He walked back over to where Zim lay and placed it and a couple more objects beside the bed.

Anxiety was beginning to swirl along with the anger in Zim's eyes. "I mean it Dib human!" The alien spat. "You have no idea _what_ you are toying with!" He struggled again as Dib reached down towards him.

_'It.' _Dib's mind reminded him. _'He's an it now. A subject. You've got to think objectively...'_

"Don't touch me," 'It' gasped. "I command you not to touch me."

Dib raised an eyebrow. "You **_command_** me? And if I don't listen, you'll do what?" He returned as pleasantly as he could, which only a touch of biting sarcasm to his words. At the same time he deliberately caught hold of one of the Irken arms. He held it down as he worked on removing the black elbow length glove, one of the pair that Zim had worn for as long as Dib had known him...

"Or I'll destroy all of everything you hold dear, including this planet!" The Irken raved, trying to twitch his arm away. "Like I should have done a long time ago!" He continued, absolutely livid. Suddenly an odd whine erupted from the back of Zim's throat and he tensed up completely. He relaxed again, quite suddenly, breathing hard. "Why isn't my pak working?" He blurted.

Dib gave the alien a half shrug and yanked the glove completely free. A pale green hand instantly balled into a fist, then uncurled just as suddenly and made a desperate bid to yank fee of the restraint that held him by his wrist. Dib caught the hand before it could escape and held it down. Zim went completely still as their skin touched, staring at the point where their hands were in contact. He continued to stare as Dib tightened the strap around his wrist with his free hand.

It took several moments, but Zim finally reacted. "How dare you!" the alien screamed.

Dib flinched slightly, then frowned, being non to gentle as he yanked Zim's sleeve up his arm. He was glad the ceiling and walls were insulated, because he would be in serious danger of awaking his family. "I'd say I caught you fair and square, don't you think?" He snapped back at the Irken.

"Fool!" was Zim's reply, showing a lot of vibrancy for someone who was tied up and at someone else's mercy. "You broke into my base and plucked me from my home! How could that _possibly_ be considered fair?"

Dib didn't answer, but rather reached over and picked up the needle. Just as quickly as he had kicked up the fuss, Zim stilled again.

Wide red eyes stared up at him as he removed the cap from the needle. He reached down and picked up the trembling arm, holding it away from the bed coverings. Right before he put the needle into the green Irken skin, he looked up at Zim. "Are you afraid?" He asked him.

Zim shook his head quickly. "Zim is afraid of nothing. NOT-" At that moment Dib stuck the needle into his skin and he gasped, rolled his head away and squeezing his eyes shut. Even before he did that, Dib had caught the horrible panic in the alien's eyes.

Zim wasn't just afraid... he was terrified.

Why did he feel guilty again? Frowning, Dib quickly took the needle away once he had collected his blood sample and placed them both on the tray. Just as quickly he cleaned the wound and pulled the sleeve back down over the arm. He wouldn't need it for a while yet.

He did catch the confusion in the alien's eyes as he looked from his arm and back at Dib. He had probably expected immediate pain and suffering.

Dib forced back the guilt and smiled brightly. "The pain and suffering doesn't start until later," He informed the alien cheerfully as he took his tray over to the far side of the room. He picked up his blood sample and placed it in the computer tray, then shut the tray's lid, waiting for the computer to analyze the new sample. He knew it would be comparing it to the old sample he had acquired it nearly two years previous... at school when Zim had let his guard down enough for Dib to get to close and jab a different needle into Zim's arm. He had removed it just as quickly and ran away very fast before the alien could do anything more than yell out curses and threats.

The computer let out a *ting* to indicate that it was done and Dib removed the sample again. Swirling it around in the small canister he took it over to his microscope and placed a drop of the rich green blood on a slide. Then he placed the rest of the sample in the refrigerator with the old one and sat, preparing to spend the night analyzing Zim's blood for irregularities manually while his computer spent the night automatically doing the same thing.

Despite being tied and helpless at the hands of his enemy, Zim was curious; more so, it seemed, than a four-year-old child. Constantly he was asking "What are you doing?" and "What are you doing now?" as Dib roamed around the lab.

Dib answered his questions honestly. He didn't have any problem with telling Zim anything, especially since the alien wasn't going to live long enough to do much about it. "I'm analyzing your blood," He replied. When Zim asked what for, he told him it was for checking for irregularities, to see if earth's partially toxic atmosphere had had a negative effect on the Irken. That was a half truth and after a while Dib decided to tell him the rest of it. "It's also to see if your race has any weaknesses just in case your stupid leaders DO decide to show up..."

Zim's eye widened. Then he sneered. "Stupid human. The superior Irken race doesn't HAVE any weaknesses." And then he laughed.

For some reason the laugher sounded hollow and forced to Dib's ears. The oldest Membrane child, where he would have argued back heatedly only a couple years previous, now just sighed. "Everything has weaknesses Zim." He turned to the Irken and raised an eyebrow. "I just have to find it."

Zim's eyes widened at him momentarily. Then he looked away again, turning his head to glare sullenly off to the side.

Luckily the Irken managed to make it through the rest of the night without loosing much more than a couple skin samples an another needle's worth of blood. It was closer to five in the morning when the computer *ting*ed again to say it had picked up an anomaly in the samples. When Dib questioned Zim on it, the alien had shifted about in his bindings and didn't say anything... but Dib could tell he was hiding something. He decided he would wean the information from the Irken later if he didn't figure it out himself.

Dib didn't sleep at all that night. He didn't quit until his sister opened up the door at the top of the basement stairs and yelled down at him that he was going to be late for school and that Dad would get him into a lot of shit if he didn't hurry up.

That was Zim's queue. "Dib-sister!" He cried out, as loud as his lungs would let him. "Dib sister come assist Zim-" Dib dodged over and clamped his hands down over Zim's mouth. Zim tried to bite the hand and after a small scramble Dib managed to reclamp his hand over Zim's mouth, this time with the assistance of a cloth so the sharp little teeth would have a harder time piercing his flesh.

Gaz's voice carried down at them from the top floor. "Was that Zim?" It asked. It sounded like it didn't particularly care.

"NO!" Dib returned quickly, despite the muffled protests and growls from Zim.

"Whatever Dib, you better both get to school or else." With that the top door to the basement stairs slammed closed and there was the sound of Gaz's footsteps moving away from it.

Dib sighed and turned back to his bound classmate. When he was sure Gaz was out of earshot he removed his hand as well.

Zim was giving him a hopeful look. "You have to let Zim go!" He said, eagerly. "I must return to school as well!" He eyes darted about, which told Dib he was inventing his excuse rapidly.

Dib gave him a skeptical look. "Nice try," He replied, stepping over to the bed. He smirked. "You know the teachers all thought you had moved when I asked where you went?" He continued. It wasn't a question.

The disappointment on Zim's face was almost tangible as he considered that. Then he looked up at Dib rather pleadingly. "Please... you must let Zim go," He replied. For once his voice was quiet as he looked right at Dib and he spoke of himself in the first person. "I need to get back to my base and, er, do stuff..." He stumbled and cleared his alien throat rapidly. "Dib human?" He reached for him as far as the restraints would let him. "Let Zim go..." He implored.

"No way," was Dib's reply. He wasn't falling for it. He reached under the lab bench and pulled out a cloth and a jar. The jar contained a concoction he had made up himself... but one he had yet to test. He was fairly sure it would knock the Irken out for a good length of time though...

He took off the cap of the jar and tipped some of the clear, slightly acid-y smelling fluid onto the cloth. While he did that he continued to talk amiably. "Tell me Zim," He said. "If you had captured me, would you REALLY have let me go?"

He looked up in time to see Zim nod eagerly. "Of course I would! Don't be silly-" Dib screwed the cap back on the jar and placed it back on the shelf behind him, then, leaning over he held the cloth inches from Zim's face. "Really?" He repeated skeptically.

Zim nodded again, but Dib could see from the miserablness in his eyes that he was lying. "I don't believe you," Dib said. Reaching down he held the back of the Irken's head with one hand and with the other pressed the cloth over Zim's mouth and face. The alien struggled briefly, his eyes wild as his atmosphere supply was blocked off, then he stopped, his eyes falling closed and his entire body going limp.

After he was sure the alien was good and unconscious, Dib pulled away again, but not before inhaling despite himself. Strange thing was was Zim did not smell like the concoction Dib had used to knock him out...

The alien smelt good. Incredibly good actually. Dib considered that for a moment then made a little 'hmph' sound. He pulled away and pulled out a breather from underneath the table, clamping it down over the alien's face and pulling the elastic across the back of his head. It would feed him simple atmosphere for the day. Then he pulled the sheet over his head to cover him, but not before inhaling deeply again. Strange. He had never noticed the alien smelt good before... he actually felt somewhat lightheaded as well. Maybe it was the concoction he had used on Zim effecting him. Shrugging it off, he stepped away from the table and made his way across the room. When he left the lab he was sure to lock the door behind him... from the outside, typing in a key command only he knew.

Or so he thought...


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note**: The counselor's name, Ms. England, is borrowed from Squee. She is not necessarily the same character I just needed a name... :)

~~~  
Chapter 2  
~~~

That day at school was especially difficult for Dib. First class he had was English. Instead of actually participating in the discussion on... Shakespeare or someone like that, he spent the entire class drawing a picture of Zim. It was Zim bound and on an autopsy table with his innards hanging out. He had drawn several pictures like that back in elementary school, and he figured that he could do it again... especially since his once fantasy was soon going to become a reality. 

For some reason this time was different. When he was done, the picture just left him with a bad taste in the back of his mouth. He stared at the picture for the remainder of class, studying it carefully. When class was over Dib looked at his picture one last time, swallowed, then crumpled the picture up and tossed it in the waste paper basket. 

_'Damn,'_ He thought to himself as he walked out of that class. 

He spent the entire day distracted and unable to concentrate... except for science class which he fell asleep in... purely due to exhaustion on his part. He hadn't slept at all the night before after all... 

His sister ignored him at lunch, choosing as she usually did to play a game instead of being social. That was fine by Dib. He picked at his food, unable to eat thanks to an odd sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, and completely lost in his thoughts. 

Last class of the day was physical education... for everyone but him. Instead he had to go talk to the school counselor. Ever since elementary school the teachers had assumed Dib was a little nuts, and the fact that he had no friends in middle school apparently indicated to them that he was in need of serious mental help. 

Dib sighed. He sat there again, face to face with Ms. England, the school's counselor, as she droned on and asked him, yet again, more than enough inappropriate questions about his personal life. He tuned her out and replied the way he usually did... with vague "naw"s and "yeah"s and "maybe"s. At the same time his mind went over the whole entire incident with Zim. Again. He thought about his capture of the little alien. And the fact that he still had the little Irken Invader in his basement right now... 

He frowned very slightly. Come to think of it, Zim hadn't been in true form last night. He may have been scared true, but Zim usually was much much more... insane and ranty than that. Something was... _different_. Like when he had first broken into the Invader's base. Dib probably wouldn't have been able hit him in the first place if the Invader hadn't appeared to be running away from him. 

That made no sense. Dib shook his head ever so slightly. Zim always confronted him with rants and met his attacks dead on. (Unless, of course, they involved water, in which case he ran screaming.) 

Not only that whenever he thought about doing anything even vaguely close to continuing to experiment on the little alien, the sick feeling in the very pit of his stomach got worse. He found that to be the strangest thing of all... a year or so ago he would have had been fine with the thought of cutting Zim open and doing anything to his insides. He would have awaited the chance eagerly! He should be excited. Like he was right up until the time he tied up his little Irken on the autopsy table. What on EARTH had happened in the mean time? Nerves? Conscience?

He didn't know... 

Dib tuned back into the counselor just in time to catch the tale end of a question. 

"... upset over the death of your friend?" Ms. England was saying. 

He looked up quickly, startled. "What?" He asked her, paling ever so slightly. 

"Your friend." Ms. England quickly shuffled through the papers in front of her. "Um, Zim I believe his name was..."

Dib just stared at her. "Zim... isn't dead." He replied. 

Ms. England blinked, looking startled herself. "Oh!" She replied. She went shuffling through her papers again, searching for something. "But his file says..." 

"I thought he moved away." Dib interrupted her. 

"He did..." Ms. England dropped the files and folded her hands in front of her. "Of course. Well then Dib," She said, smiling winning at the boy. "Are you upset over the fact that your friend moved away?" The look on her face turned to one of immense concern. 

Dib stared at the counselor. He raised one eyebrow and blinked, then shook his head ever so slightly. 

"I'm going now." He said very deliberately, getting up from his chair. 

"Wait! So soon Dib? It's not the end of your class yet." Ms. England replied. She indicated to his vacated chair. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked kindly. 

Dib shook his head 'no', schooling an irritated look. "I'm done talking to you." He replied honestly. With that he turned and left the room, shutting the door deliberately behind him as he went.

He usually waited for his sister to walk home with him, but not today. Today he had more important things to do. Or rather one very important thing to do. 

That was to let Zim go. He couldn't do it. 

He laughed at himself as he half-walked half-ran towards his house. His voice was caught in the wind and ripped from him and it only made him laugh harder. He was such a nut. Ms. England would certainly declare him insane and send him off to a mental institution if she only knew what he was about to do. 

He was going to let the alien go. After years of hunting him, after years of threats, pain and tears he was actually going to let the alien go. 

He WAS insane. But not for the reasons they thought, goodness no... 

He barely noticed his sister as he ran past the kitchen and took the stairs down two at a time. He jogged through his Dad's lab, grateful that his father was at work, and came to the door to his own lab.

Dib stopped short.

The door was slightly ajar. 

His blood suddenly ran chill. Dib reached out and pushed the door the rest of the way open, then stepped inside. "Hello?" He called out cautiously. 

There was no answer. Frowning, he flicked on the light switch, blinking as the banks of fluorescent lights flickered to life. 

Nothing. Nothing was out of place, and everything was as neat and orderly and in the way he had left it when he left for school. Except for one little detail... 

Zim was gone. The bed was empty, the restraints untied and the cover thrown back to indicate a body had climbed out, or had been helped out, from underneath them. 

Dib stared, his mouth hanging open. After several moments his mind processed that and he shut his mouth and swallowed, then frowned again. There was only one explanation for the disappearance of Zim, and the fact that his lab was left untouched in the process. 

Gaz. Gaz wouldn't care enough to destroy his stuff. Zim would. Obviously his sister had just broken in here to get one thing and one thing only-- that being Zim.

She had done it for him. Let Zim go. He didn't know whether to be happy or angry with her. 

He decided on something inbetween the two. What was done was done, but he could at least be a little bit irked. He took the stairs slowly back up to the kitchen, to where his sister sat on the countertop, eating what looked like toast. 

He stood in the doorway of the kitchen with his hands folded across his chest, glaring. 

Gaz ignored him and continued eating her toast. After a moment or so of being glared at she gave him the middle finger and kept on munching away.

_'See? That's what I get for being a good older brother to Gaz all these years,'_ Dib thought sourly. _'She goes and lets my alien escape...'_ It was more than that though... the moment his sister hit puberty something horrible had come over her, turning her from a grumpy kid who didn't care about any thing, to a grumpy offensive kid who still didn't care... about most things. Unless, of course, they benefited her in some way. Which lead him to his next question. "What did he give you for his escape?" Dib asked, a touch of dry sarcasm in his voice. 

Gaz hopped down from the counter and made her way across the linoleum to the fridge. "Like I'd tell you," She replied obnoxiously. 

Dib shrugged and let out a self suffering sigh. If she wasn't going to tell him, no amount of whining on his behalf was going to get his answers for him. So he changed the subject. "Gaz? Did you skip out of last class again?" He asked, walking towards her. He knew that Gaz would have had to skip out of class to come free Zim... and it wasn't like she hadn't done it before. Last class for Gaz this year was English, and despite being one of those girls that spent a good deal of time reading books (when she wasn't playing video games), she wasn't the best at expressing herself when it came to the written word... 

Gaz emerged from the fridge again with can of cola. "So what if I did?" She grunted, slamming the fridge door shut behind her. 

Dib sighed and jerked the fridge door open himself, extracting a can of cola as well. "You know what Dad says Gaz," he replied. He cleared his throat and thrust his finger in the air and mimicked their father. "'An educated adult is a happy adult...'" 

Gaz raised one eyebrow then snorted in disgust. "Well I'm not *going* to be a happy adult, now am I?" She returned snarkily. She turned away. "Don't do that again. You look like an idiot." 

Sighing loudly, Dib lowered his hand. He glared, and his eyes narrowed at the back of his sister's head. Then he rolled his eyes heavenward and shrugged upwards briefly, took a swing of his cola and casually turned to leave the kitchen.

He wanted to survey the lab. If Gaz really had left everything untouched, he should still have some Irken blood and skin samples to play with. Maybe he could even go back to Zim's base and see if there was any chance of him getting back in there again... wait! He stopped his train of thought quickly_. 'No. No more capturing Zim. I'll analyze the blood. Find out what's wrong with it. Yeah, that's what I'll do...'_ he continued to think to himself as he walked away. 

He made it as far as the top of the basement stairs. 

"Oh yeah and Dib?" Gaz called out after him from the kitchen. 

Dib started. Then -- "What?" He replied and paused.

"Not that you'd care or anything," Gaz said scornfully. "But I think he's sick." 

It took Dib a moment to realize that Gaz didn't mean sick as in twisted sick or insane sick, but rather physically ill. Dib blinked. Well that was interesting... but Gaz was right. "You're right," He called back at her just as snidely. "I don't care." 

~~~

Well... that was a bit of a lie. He sort of cared. 

After checking his lab and discovering the skin and blood samples were indeed where he left them, he decided to go off and check on Zim's house. He shouted out Gaz something to the effect of "I'm going to the corner store!" (He got a snort and a "Suuuuuurrree," in reply) and left.

He could see that Zim's base was still standing and was still eerily lighting the night, even from a block and a half away. He walked up to it anyway, pausing in the street a few feet from the front fence. Everything seemed to be in order. The gnomes had self repaired again. The lights were on, save for the attic light. Figures and shadowed light danced across the one wall he could see inside the crooked window, evidence that Gir was faithfully watching TV again. The "I love Earth" flag, which Dib had attempted to dismantle and vandalize on many an occasion still read just that-- "I love Earth."

"Go home Dib," The boy told himself out loud. "There's nothing you can do. NO!" He began to argue with himself. "No. You can't go in there and get him again, you forgot your laptop remember? Not to mention the rest of your equipment..." _'And you won't be able to do it anyway... we've been _**_though_**_ this already.'_ He thought to himself. "Okay?" He replied out loud. 

Dib turned away and began to trudge back towards home again, but not before he paused momentarily. "I'm talking to myself again, aren't I?" He noted with a sigh. He was, but a quick glance around him told him that no one was out and around to hear him anyway. 

Dib had nearly reached home again, and was completely lost in his own mental arguments and thoughts when the strangest thing happened to him. A truck roared towards him, up the road, it's headlights shining brightly on the boy. He looked up and blinked, confused as he raised a hand to shield his eyes. 

The truck slowed, but didn't stop. Even so a man with an official looking uniform on and a cap plopped down over short-cropped hair stuck his head out of the window. 

"Go home kid!" The man yelled. "It isn't safe for you to be out this time of night alone!" He then stuck his head back into the cab and the truck roared off, continuing on down the road. 

Dib turned and stared after it, utterly dumbfounded for a minute. "Now I wonder who that could have been...?" He said out loud. After a moment of puzzlement he shrugged and continued walking on towards home. He had more important things to worry about....

After several hours of peering through the eye piece of his microscope Dib sat back, taking off his glasses and rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He felt like a thirty year old man, not a fourteen year old boy. 

Something was wrong, of that much Dib was certain. He had run an analysis on the blood sample again and again in the computer, inspecting the anomalies he had found the night before. He had followed it up with manually checking the sample over again and again. He had identified all of the components that would regularly have been found in human blood when he had acquired the first blood sample years ago, but this new sample... there was something different in it. And there was a lot of it. He didn't know what it was, this foreign component in Zim's blood, but it worried him. Especially since it appeared to be... multiplying.

Finally Dib gave up for the night. He hadn't slept in over thirty six hours, save for a nap during class, and it was beginning to wear on him. Slowly he climbed up the stairs to his room and collapsed on his bed. He fell asleep instantly.

~~~

Zim wasn't in school the next day-- not that Dib really expected him to be. Instead he spent the day musing over what could possibly be wrong with the Irken Invader. Gaz had said he was sick. That led him to think that maybe the odd component of Zim's blood was... a virus? Or something. A virus, or some sort of infectious disease may explain why the Irken had decided to stay inside his base for the last couple of weeks. That would also explain why Zim had been yelling at his computer as well the day before last right before Dib had captured him. He remembered the alien's word's suddenly. Hadn't the alien yelled something about reversing something? Reversing **_what_** though--?

That night Dib pulled out the blood sample again, as well as took a sample from the refrigerator of both the old sample and the fresh one. The old sample had nothing wrong with it at all, but the fresh one had the same thing Dib had seen all the night before... strange little cells bumping in between the Irken equivalent of true blood cells. Odd. Very odd. 

Even odder still was the sample Dib had been analyzing had more of the cells in it than the fresh sample from the refrigerator. Like the cells that came into close contact with warmth or his person multiplied faster or something. 

THAT Dib found downright creepy. He finally decided to take a sample of his own blood. If Zim had a virus or something that was causing him to be ill, he was the only person besides Gaz that had been within a couple feet of the Irken in the last few weeks...

He took his own sample and inspected the blood beneath the microscope, twisting the knob carefully to bring the cells into focus. It took him only a couple moments to find what he was looking for. Then his breath caught in his throat and he then drew back in horror. There were **tons** of them. Between his blood cells as well, the same thing that was present in Zim's blood... 

Gulping down fear, Dib cleaned and thoroughly decontaminated his arm, the microscope and surrounding areas, hoping beyond hope that he had merely contaminated his sample. Then he took another blood sample from his arm and stuck it on a sterile slide... 

Only to discover the same thing. The foreign whatever it was was there in large quantities, happily multiplying in his blood stream. He had been infected with... something. 

But what? And more importantly, he thought as he sat back on his chair. Had GAZ been infected with the alien stuff as well? His eyes widened. 

He had to check. 

~~~

"Gaz!" Dib hissed. "Gaz!" He shook her shoulder beneath the blanket. "Gaz wake up!" 

Gaz groaned and rolled over, then let out a soft growl as she came too. She blinked blearily up at the sight that met her eyes. Dib stood above her, looking like the splitting image of a doctor. He wore a breather, a full labcoat and had gloves on. If it wasn't for the fact that he was still wearing his huge glasses and his dark hair was sticking up in ever single direction possible she would have mistaken him for a stranger and attacked him. As it was the growl she gave when she saw she wasn't alone in the room grew dangerously as she glanced over at her clock. 

"Dib!" She said. "It's two thirty in the fucking morning!" She sat up and glowered, even as Dib held up his hands in a placating gesture. 

"Remember what Dad said about swearing?" Dib reminded his sister, giving her a cocky half grin she couldn't see because he had a mask on. 

"What. Do. You. Want?!" Gaz hissed, raising her fist. 

"I need a blood sample," Dib replied quickly, pulling a needle and some tubing out of his lab coat pocket.

"A WHAT?!" Gaz shouted. 

"Shhh-!" Dib hissed. "You'll wake up Dad." He sat down on the bed next to his fuming sister. "You were right," He explained in a quiet voice. "Zim is sick. And whatever he's sick with, he's infected me too." He gave Gaz a clinical look. "You came in direct contact with him... I need to know if you're infected or not." He held out his hands towards her arm.

Gaz's eyes narrowed. Finally she let out a little huff of frustration and extended her arm. "You'll pay for this." She grumbled. 

Dib only nodded. "As I'll pay for all the other hundred things I do wrong around here, I know," He replied with another little self suffering sigh.

~~~

Dib was still in his lab peering into a microscope when Gaz came down stairs to check on him the next day before school. 

"How did you sleep?" Dib asked her without even looking up from the microscope. 

"Terrible," Was Gaz's reply. "No thanks to you."

Dib only nodded. Finally he pulled away from the microscope and rubbed wearily at an eye. "You're clean," he half mumbled, half yawned.

Gaz raised an eyebrow. Her brother frankly looked terrible. She would have wondered if it was from the whatever it was Zim had infected him with, but she knew it was more than likely because he hadn't slept that night. Again. "And you're not," She returned sharply. 

Dib only shrugged and looked down at his hands. A thinking frown developed on his face, as if he was still considering, confused as to why Zim's illness had only infected him. All night he had sat puzzling over that little fact. Zim's sample was full of the virus (and he had decided to call it a virus, at least until he could identify it) as was Dib's sample. But Gaz's sample hadn't had a hint of the odd substance in it at all. Even when he exposed a drop of it to Zim's blood it hadn't reacted at all. Gaz's sample stayed clean. 

Gaz snorted softly. "Maybe you'll consider that next time you decide to abduct a sick alien to perform experiments on." She said snidely. 

Dib looked up at her. "How did you know he was sick anyway?" He asked her suddenly. "Was he displaying any particular symptoms? Did he tell you he was sick?"

For a moment Gaz glared at her brother and considered not telling him anything. Then she decided that it was probably for the best if she did let him know what little she knew. She sighed. "He just looked tired that's all." She said swiftly. "And worn out. He didn't talk much at all, and he didn't rant at all, thank god, though I thought it was a bit strange for your stupid friend. He said you hadn't hurt him, so it couldn't have been because of that, so I thought that maybe he wasn't feeling very well." With that she shrugged and turned, making for the door. 

"Gaz?" Dib called out after her. Gaz paused. 

"Thanks." Dib said. 

Gaz shrugged. She considered, then called back to him. "Are you going to school Dib?" She asked, laying on the sarcasm. 

"No." Was the expected response. She heard Dib's chair squeak as he turned back around to his workbench. 

_'No... of course not. Now I have to stay here and correct my stupidity.'_ Gaz thought at him meanly in her head. She sighed and left the room, tossing her eyes upward as she did so. _'Why did *I* have to be stuck with the neighborhood nutcase for a brother?... Better yet, why did I have to be stuck with the neighborhood nutcases for a *family*?' _She growled softly to herself as she walked up the stairs. Her brother was a self proclaimed paranormal investigator who just happened to have an alien for a best friend and wouldn't SHUT UP about it, and last she heard her wacko scientist father was working on some big important secret invention for an underground organization or something stupid like that. Geez! Her family was going to get HER placed in a loony bin some day... purely through association... 

~~~

Dib didn't go to school the next day, or the day after that either. He studied the samples he had gotten from Zim every which way he could, searching for the key to the whatever it was that had infected them both. He was having no luck at all. 

He did notice something though on the second day though... something almost as creepy as the fact that he was infected as well. The virus was mutating Zim's blood. He didn't know how, exactly, but he noticed that the odd square shaped Irken blood cells were being... attacked by whatever it was. They were changing them into a rounder shape, but beyond that they didn't seem to be harming the cells any... 

The only slightly positive thing he found was the fact that it appeared that the level of whatever they were in his own blood had stopped increasing. Not only that, unlike Zim's sample, the virus didn't appear to be attacking his blood cells at all. He kept a constant almost panicked watch on them though, but unlike Zim's sample his samples almost seemed to be slipping into dormancy, the virus ceasing all movement and instead just... sitting there. 

As the days went by, he didn't FEEL any different. He actually felt pretty good. Really good actually. He was invigorated, and he paced the house during the long school hours itching for something-- _anything_ to do. Of course the sickness was constantly on his mind, and he was constantly worried that he was going to infect other people, but it seemed that no one else was getting sick because if this. Whatever it was anyway. He was concerned about the mutation thing he had noticed happening to Zim's blood. 

"He may be dead right now for all you know," He told himself one afternoon while taking a break from analyzing. He was lying on the roof sipping coffee and staring at the clouds. He stared at the clouds longer as he turned that statement over and over again in his mind. "He may very well be dead..." 

****

**Year 1, Week 2 -**

That night he was within an inch of marching to Zim's house and demanding to know what the blood aliment was, when Gir, of all things, came to him. 

Of course a little robot dressed up as a dog was the last thing anyone expected to find on the front porch of their house, but Gaz took it well. At least as well as could be expected from Gaz. As she looked down at the 'dog', Gir unzipped his front, jumped out of his doggy suit and grinned up at her. 

Gaz growled back. She hated that robot. Zim she could take, in small doses of stupidity, but that robot... he set her teeth on edge... literally. 

"Is masta Dib there?" Gir asked with a bit of an accent, still grinning.

The growl grew and Gaz nashed her teeth. Finally she turned away from the door and called into the house. "Dib! The doors for you!" She yelled as she marched away. 

Dib was surprised as well when he saw the dog robot thing, and even more surprised when the robot launched himself at him and grabbed onto his pant leg. 

"Please come help the master," The robot howled. "You must come help! You're the only one who can and the master has been ignoring me and he won't take me out any more and only you can fix him pleasemasterplease??" His voice hit an impossible pitch on the last word.

A cupboard slammed in the kitchen. "Dib! Get that *thing* out of this house!" Gaz yelled at him from the other room. 

"I-- hey!" Dib did a little dance, trying to remove the robot from his leg by jiggling it. No go, Gir was solidly attached. Another warning bang came from the kitchen. "Just a minute!" Dib called back in response. He began to half walk half shuffle towards the door with Gir still holding on tightly onto his pant leg, then made it out the door and down the sidewalk like that. "Gir..." Dib said as he struggled to walk. "I have no idea what is WRONG with Zim, let alone how to help him..."

The robot grinned at that and hopped down off his leg. "You can figure it out!" He said happily, and then skipped over to his doggy outfit and pulled it on again. 

Dib ran a hand through his unruly hair and sighed heavily. After a moment he realized that Gir was looking at him expectantly and sighed again, louder this time. "Why me?" He muttered under his breath. Even so he walked over and picked up the leash, flinching at Gir's squeal of delight at being walked. 

"Gir," Dib tried to explain as he began walking in the direction of Zim's house, the robot happily skipping along beside him. "You know that the last time your master saw me, I was trying to perform horrible tests on him, don't you?" 

"Mmm hmmm," Gir replied. 

Dib raised an eyebrow. "Did you really?" He asked suspiciously. 

The robot turned and looked up at him, then smiled again, his little tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth. "Nope!" Was the reply. 

Dib shook his head. "Yeah." He muttered to himself. "I didn't think so." 

Dib felt just a little bit odd walking up the steps of Zim's house without having the garden gnomes attempt to blast him away. He looked at them suspiciously as Gir pranced up the walk, and clenched the robot's leash a little bit tighter in his hand. He didn't like this very much, especially when the gnomes swung their heads around to watch him with their red glow-y eyes. He was beginning to severely wish he had come with his backpack instead of just leaving right away with Zim's robot. That was really stupid of him actually, he thought to himself. "Gir..." He began as they stepped onto the front porch. 

The robot did nothing beyond grin up at him stupidly. Then he pushed open the front door of the house. Tugging on his end of the leash Dib still had clenched in his hands he led the boy right across the room to an end table. Leaning down he pushed the table aside to reveal a dimly lighted pad that shone underneath it. Gir turned, smiled again, and chirped "There!"

"You want me to step on there?" Dib asked, suddenly hesitant as he recognized a probable elevator shaft. This was just too weird. He had an open invitation to enter Zim's underground labs... it had to be a trap... 

"Uhhh Huuhhh..." Was the little robot's reply. Before Dib knew what was happening the robot managed to dart behind him and shoved him none to gently onto the lighted pad. Dib gasped and turned, but it was too late. A glass swung up and enveloped him, trapping him in a rounded see through cage. 

It WAS a trap. "GIR!" Dib shouted, pounding against the "glass" with his fists. He looked down at the light glowing underneath his feet, and was alarmed to see it brighten. He looked back up again, panicked.

The robot waved at him serenely from the other side of the glass. "You're gonna to hurt the Master REALLL bad!" Dib could hear the crazy robot squeal though the glass. 

"No Gir!" Dib replied desperately, pressing both of his hands and his face against the glass as he tried to look as pleading as possible. "I thought you said you needed me to HELP Zim, not hurt him!!" 

The robot had stopped listening. Instead he flipped himself backwards, and had started rolling about on the floor, giggling madly. 

Dib stared. Gir's antics was the last thing he saw before the floor beneath him dropped and the elevator began to descend with him in it. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes**: Okie dokies boys and girls... hide the parents, the rating on this fic is officially going up to "R". Nothing _hugely_ bad, but discussion of sexuality, and a bit of, er, _other stuff_ happens. If that makes you feel uncomfortable, you can always skip on to the next part! :D   
**Added Notes**:Thank you to my reviewers for the support and encouraging me to write more fic and my to new beta type person, J. Random Lurker, for volunteering to go over my fic parts as I get them done and point out my mistakes. It is much appreciated!

~~~  
Chapter 3  
~~~

Dib was beginning to severely curse his lack of foresight when it came to not bringing any sort of weapon with him as the elevator sped down below ground level with him in it. He was also beginning to wonder if it would ever stop when it finally did. It spat him out and he stumbled into a darkened area. He fell back again and spent a couple a moments leaning against a wall, breathing heavily and trying to regain his breath. It didn't take him much longer before he realized that he could not _see_ anything. At all. 

He heart leapt into his throat at that revelation and a chill drifted through him. He cleared his throat carefully. "C-computer?" He called out cautiously. 

"Wh~hat?" The computer whined back at him. 

Dib blinked into the darkness. "Computer, can you turn on the lights?" He asked, a little bit plaintively. 

The computer didn't answer but a moment later the lights flooded on, and Dib squinted in the sudden brightness. After a moment his vision cleared and he blinked again, looking around himself. 

A door was directly in front of him, less three feet from the place he was standing. 

_'Okay...'_ cautiously Dib stepped forwards, reached out, and touched the door. 

It slid open quickly and soundlessly, startling the boy again. After a moment he calmed himself and stepped forwards into the new room. 

This room was spacious. Very spacious. Much like the room Dib had first captured Zim in, it had computer control panels along one wall of the room, and lines upon lines of empty specimen capsules in rows along the two of the other three sides. The far wall was bare, save for the texture of pipes and electrical-like tubing. 

The first thing he noticed about the place though, was the smell.

It wasn't an unpleasant smell... in fact it was just the opposite. It was thick and musky... and _strong_. Strong enough to make Dib stumble backwards a step and clamp a hand loosely over his mouth and nose. 

He recovered after a moment and took his hand away from his face. "Zim?" He called out softly, remembering why he was down here in the first place. 

There was no answer. Frowning Dib walked further into the room, his eyes darting about. "Zim?" He called out again. He noticed that his voice echoed slightly. A curious look crossed his face, and he cleared his throat. The sound of the gentle rumble echoed back at him as well and he looked up suddenly. The ceiling was very high up, which explained the echo... he looked back down and took a few steps forward, stopping to turn a full 360 degrees, peering into the shadows all around him before continuing deeper into the room. "Are you in here?" 

He could barely hear it, but "Go _away_..." something groaned out softly in response. 

Dib's head snapped around, his eyes following the sound of that voice. 

There! 

Or rather there his legs were. They were curving out from behind a computer panel covered in unrecognizable equipment. 

"Zim!" He darted toward the small Irken, then stopped short, his eyes widening.

Zim was naked. Stark naked, as the day he was born, pending he was even born in the first place. But where...? Dib looked about quickly and found the Irken's clothes, a couple of feet away and to his left. He turned and crouched down. He picked up what looked like the remains of Zim's striped shirt, running his hands over it. It was now just rags... less than that really, scraps of cloth... torn into tiny useless strips of fabric. The cloth was encrusted with something dried as well, and on a lighter patch of it, Dib could see that it was the green color of Irken blood. Frowning, Dib dropped the fabric and stood up again, walking slowly over to Zim's prone form. 

"Zim," He said much more quietly as he crouched down besides him. The alien looked literally drugged, his red eyes half closed and glazed over. His thin arms encircled his upper body and his knees were up, pressed almost to his chest. His breathing was steady and deliberate and Dib watched for a moment as his chest slowly rose and fell. Then he noticed the dried green blood that swelled out in circles on the floor about the Irken. Dib's frown deepened as he leaned closer to Zim-- where had all the blood come from? Then he got a gigantic whiff the strong musky scent that had captured his attention when he had first walked into the room. 

His head swam suddenly. Letting out a little noise of alarm, Dib fell backwards on his butt. He sat there for a moment, then stifled a soft moan. A particular warmth was spreading throughout his body, turning his limbs numb and tingly. It washed over him then focused, centering somewhere in the pit of his groin. 

_'What the HELL?'_ Dib thought, very startled. Then it occurred to him that the smell coming from Zim, first off, and that it could be dangerous to a human, especially since his blood was already infected with an alien virus. He clamped his hand over his mouth and nose again, despite the fact that it wouldn't help very much as fingers made poor filters... 

He only then noticed that Zim was watching him out of glazed half-lidded eyes. The alien didn't move however, just continued breathing in and out laboriously. After a moment of looking at the human his eyes closed. "Go away." He repeated, his voice thin and whispery. "Zim does not wish to see you." 

Dib ignored that. "What's happening here Zim?" He choked out. He was now kneeling, both of his hands held over his mouth and nose. 

Zim didn't reply. 

"Tell me Zim!" Dib snapped after a moment or so of silence. "What's wrong with you?" He yanked one of his hands away long enough to wave it wildly to the remains of Zim's clothes. "Why did you rip your clothes off? What's wrong with your blood?" He now gestured to the pools of encrusted green stuff underneath Zim. "ZIM??" 

The Irken let out a little snort, his eyes still closed. "Stupid human." He muttered. "Stupid, stupid human. You'd never underst--" Suddenly Zim gasped, his eyes flying open. He cried out, arching his back suddenly, then curled in on himself, gasping and trembling. 

Dib reacted nearly without thinking. He lurched towards the Irken, then at the last moment remembered himself. Yanking up his shirt he held it over his nose with one hand, and reached out with his other. "Zim." He said, his voice kindly now. "Whatever you have, it's infected me too," He explained. "If you let me help you, maybe I can fix it. What do you think?" When Zim still didn't reply Dib reached down and shook Zim's shoulder ever so slightly. "Zi--"

Zim reacted... violently. Shrugging off Dib's hand he threw himself backwards, skidding across the floor on his rear. "Do not TOUCH me!" He snapped, his red alien eyes blazing. "This would not even be occurring in the first place if you had not touched me!!" He lurched forwards bringing twin clawed fists forwards to slam them down into the floor. "I hate you!" He thrust a hand forward, pointing it at Dib, then balled it and waved it in the air melodramatically. "I hate you with a hate I've never hated before..." He finished and his hand fell back to the floor, joining the other in helping to hold him up on all fours. His head hung between his shoulders as he panted, clearly exhausted. "Pitiful goo creature," He muttered. "Hate brain meats..."

Dib raised an eyebrow. He was used to Zim not making much sense, but all and all he _did_ get something out of that outburst. Well more than something. He had never seen Zim completely naked before. He had wanted to... he remembered back in grade 7, when gym class started and all the boys had to change in the change room together he had eagerly awaited the opportunity. It was finally his chance to see what exactly Zim had underneath that full body invader outfit he always wore. Purely scientific fascination of course. He had been very upset when he learned that Zim somehow managed to get himself exempt from the class -- permanently. When Dib had ranted about it, Zim had smirked and said something about his skin condition. It had made Dib want to kill him at the time.

Now, however, he had been exposed to more than just an eyeful of Zim when the alien jerked away and fled across the room. Like he expected, Zim did not have anything that would be considered somewhat male in origin... but... what? Dib's eyes narrowed as he tried to discern exactly what was between the Irken's legs. There was something there... but what **_was_** that? And why did it cause his stomach to flip flop? He didn't know why, exactly, trying to look for an alien's sexual organs was making something in his stomach flutter. Dib winced, and his eyes shifted momentarily, as he tried desperately to school his body's reactions. _'Lucky for me Zim's an alien,'_ He thought ruefully. He tried to look away, but curiosity wouldn't let him as Zim knelt... 

"Do you mean I did something when I abducted you that made you sick?" Dib asked, still looking at the darker green patch of skin down between Zim's legs. He cautiously removed his hand from around his mouth as he spoke though, assuming that Zim was far enough away from him to not pose a threat... 

Zim shook his head back and forth agitatedly. "Yes. No!" There was a pause, and then the alien looked up suddenly. "Your hair is stupid!" He declared. 

_'Well at least he didn't say anything about my head size.'_ Dib reflected. "Zim..." He said out loud, and there was a warning note to his voice. He looked back up at the Irken's face. Finally he sighed and threw his hands in the air. "I don't even know why I'm here," he exclaimed suddenly. His eyes narrowed. It was time for him to demand answers. He thrust a finger at Zim. "Gir said I can help you." Dib said, his words short and clipped. "Your stupid crazy robot dog came to MY house and said you needed MY help. WHY??" 

Zim's eyes narrowed. After a moment he snorted again and grinned. "YOU can not help ZIM!" He said in a sing song voice. 

"WHY?" Dib returned. He was beginning to get impatient. The impatience was helping to clear his head actually, thankfully. 

Zim looked at him for a moment. Then his face fell, his antennae falling flat against his head. He lowered his head again, then shook it. "Lies..." He muttered. "All lies..." 

"ZIM!" Dib had had enough. He got to his feet and stomped over to Zim. He reached down and yanked the Irken up by his arm. He shook the alien once he got him semi-standing. "Stop it!" He snapped. "Stop acting crazy and tell me what I need to know, Zim." 

Zim looked up at him, almost fearfully for a moment. Then he blinked and frowned. He squirmed, trying to wean his arm out of Dib's grasp. Dib merely tightened his grip. 

It was only then that he noticed the scars. 

He looked pensive, peering closer at the Irken's skin. He hadn't noticed that when he had had Zim on the autopsy table... but there was the finest network of pale green scars covering Zim's upper arms and chest. Huh... suddenly he remembered Zim's clothes. _'They might be from that,'_ Dib thought to himself. He knew for a fact that the Irken healed fast... from at school when their adventures in trying to capture each other got too rough. Zim would be injured and bleeding profusely one moment and then a couple of minutes later he would be perfectly fine again, his cuts or scrapes or whatever happily sealed off and repaired. Dib usually wasn't so lucky, being human, but that was besides the point. If enough time had gone by for Zim's blood to dry and encrust on the ground, then more than likely the scars had come from that healing. Though... he shook his head slightly. Had the Irken really clawed his clothes off? Why? What would have caused such a _violent_ reaction...? 

He had almost forgotten that he had Zim's arm in a deathgrip with the alien was twitching uncomfortably until the Irken spoke. "RELEASE me, stink beast, and I will tell you," Zim finally grumbled at him. 

Dib raised an eyebrow. "Promise?" He said. 

Zim nodded. 

"And no more saying things that don't make any sense?" Dib pressed. 

Zim nodded again. 

"And you're going to tell me what's wrong with you, right?" Dib continued. 

"Yes, _yes_," Zim replied. "Stupid meatbag, let me go!"

Dib let him go. 

The alien collapsed to the ground at Dib's feet. For a moment he sat there, massaging his arm where Dib had gripped it, then he hung his head. Dib took a couple steps back and peered down at him.

The Irken sighed and opened his mouth. "About every sixty of your pathetic earth years members of the superior Irken race go into heat." Zim finally mumbled.

"... Heat?" Dib replied, somewhat confused. 

"Yes heat," Zim snapped back irritably. 

Dib blinked. "Okay... heat like in as...?" He made circles with his hands to encourage Zim to continue. 

"Heat as in heat heat!" Zim explained, sounding more than a little cranky. "One Irken must go find another Irken to produce seedlings, which are then sent off to the nurseries to be grown into smeets."

Dib blinked. He only understood about half of what Zim had just said, but he was learning something new, even if it seemed to have nothing to do with the sickness he wanted to know about. He crouched down to get somewhat eye level with Zim, interested despite himself and willing to risk the intoxicating scent to learn. "Smeets?" He questioned. 

"Yes, smeets! Wormbabies as you humans call them." Zim replied. 

That Dib got. 'Wormbaby' was Zim's word for human children. "Humans call them ch--"

"Don't interrupt me!" Zim yelled, looking up and waving a fist at Dib. "Do you want me to tell you or _NOT_?!" 

Dib was taken aback for a moment, but then he sighed, rolled his eyes, and nodded. "Fine. Go ahead." He replied. _'Ah well...'_ He thought. At least he now knew how Irkens reproduced.

"AnyWAY," Zim continued snobbily. "No matter what or where an Irken is at any given time that Irken, if their sixty year cycle begins, they go into heat and need to mate... and all such disgustingness." Zim wiggled his fingers and wrinkled his face to indicate his disgust at the thought.

"Mate?" Dib replied. 

"YES mate!" Zim exploded. Suddenly, almost as if it had become too much for him the alien's eyes widened again. He lost his angry posture and gasped, curled in on himself. He finally fell over to lay out on his side in a fetal position. Dib resisted the urge to go to him. He had a sickening feeling developing that he should probably try to stay far away as possible from Zim right about now...

For the longest moment there was quiet in the room and the only sound was the Irken's noisy breathing. Dib began to wonder if he was going to continue and was about to question him on it when the alien did anyway. 

"Unfortunately, despite all the _incredible_ advancements in Irken Technology, they haven't managed to figure out how to weed out this one." Zim paused and gasped for breath again, then swung his head upwards and glared at Dib. "I would have returned to the Massive, but the journey is too long. The only chance I had," He spat, "Was to stay here and try to cure myself. I was very close to figuring out the cure when you! Stinky worm monkey, decided to WRENCH me from my HOME and destroy MONTHS of work..." Dib raised an eyebrow again and Zims head fell back down again, to rest against the floor. His hate filled eyes stayed focused on Dib though. "Now it is too late. My wretched traitorous body has imprinted you, the most hated of all the filthy creatures on this disgusting planet, thanks to your horrible touching-ness..." He drew in a shuddering breath and looked away, his eyes turning to focus off at nothing. "I do not know why my superior body would consider your pathetic race advanced enough to inter-mate with the far superior Irken race..." His voice trailed off as he continued to stare off into the distance, a perfectly miserable look on his green face. 

It took Dib a moment, but he finally managed to process all the things Zim had just said and 'get it'. "You're NOT serious," He breathed.

"I assure you, human, I am very serious," Zim replied grumpily. He had reverted back to holding his arms around his alien chest, his shoulders hunched in on themselves. 

Dib backed up a step. And then another. Oh nonononono... "You mean, I have to, you know..." He pointed to himself and then at Zim. "With _you_...?"

Zim's head swung back around to look at him and he frowned. "What?" 

Dib shook his head again. It made too much sense though. The strong intoxicating smell. The... _arousal_ he had felt ever since he had walked into the room and had been trying desperately to ignore. His eyes flew to that strange dark patch down between Zim's legs and back to his face again. "This... this is insane!" He declared. "You're a-- an alien *thing*! How can I possibly do anything-- like that... with you??!" He was shouting now, his eyes wild. 

Zim squinted one eye up at him. Very slowly he uncurled himself and even more slowly he managed half wiggle half crawl across the floor, away from Dib. Dib watched him go, confused. He did notice, now that he could see his back, that Zim's pak still had ugly outlines around the ports where he had sealed them off... had the alien not had time to fix his pak since returning here? 

He was even more confused as he saw Zim use the computer panels to haul himself shakily to his feet. "Why can't you walk?" He asked suddenly, looking and feeling completely lost. Zim had never had problems with walking before... and he didn't need his pak to do that... 

Zim still didn't answer him. After a moment of standing against the computer panel with both of his hands braced against it and his chest heaving with the effort of standing, Zim tapped something into one of them. 

"Zim?" Dib questioned, beginning to get more than a little nervous. An instant later something popped up out a slot in the computer and Zim caught it swiftly, turning around to face Dib at the same time. 

It was a gun. Zim had an Irken gun in one of his hands and he had it pointed right at his chest. Dib froze. The alien's eyes narrowed at the human. 

"Shut up," Zim hissed at him through clenched teeth. "Shut up or I'll shoot you." 

Dib merely stared at Zim, doing a very good impression of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. After what seemed like forever but was actually only a couple of seconds, he relaxed. He narrowed one eye and raised the other eyebrow. "You're... not going shoot me," he said, slowly and quite matter of factly. If Zim had wanted to shoot him, he would have done it when he had first walked into the room.

Zim's hand trembled and the other hand came up to support it. "Don't be so sure," He hissed. He actually managed to step away from the panel, which he had been leaning back against for support. His legs shook with the effort though, very badly, Dib noted to himself. 

"Do you actually think I want anything to do with this?" Zim ranted. "My perfect Irken body has been horribly deformed thanks to you!" 

Deformed... Dib glanced down to the darkened patch on the Irken's lower abdomen which had caught his attention so many times already, then looked back up, again, confused. "What?" He asked. 

Zim's eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me you can not see what is so plainly in front of your eyes human," He snapped. "My _perfect _body," his lip curled. "Has modified it's self for you." 

Dib's eyes flew back down again. The darkened patch, he saw then, grew darker around a certain point, which disappeared into... he balked suddenly, realizing what he was actually looking at. _Christ!_ Really? Zim was an alien... he would have never guessed... 

Desperately he looked back up at Zim's face. "I--" He began 

"All because you TOUCHED me," Zim ignored him and continued to yell. "If you had _listened_ to me, there would have been no Dib-Beast genetic information for my body to modify it's self with!" He raised his arms out straight with a jerk, targeting his weapon. "Horrible creature this is all your fault!" And with that he pulled the trigger.

Dib cried out and jumped away as the beam came flying at him. He landed and rolled, curling into a desperate ball on the floor. After a moment he uncurled and looked up, only to discover the scorched line on the floor was in fact several feet away from where he had been standing. 

Zim had missed... badly. 

Then he heard the low moan and the accompanying thump. 

Surprised he looked back to see Zim sprawled out on the floor where he had stood only moments before. The gun had dropped from his hand and had skittered off, and was now laying several feet away. 

Dib leapt to his feet and ran over, kicking the gun away. He then turned back to Zim, panting slightly from the exertion. He was going to turn and run over to crush his foot into Zim's neck to hold him down, but he realized just as quickly that he didn't need to. The alien had apparently worn himself out. He barely even moved as he lay there on the floor, except for the twitch of his antennae. They consistently kept on perking up a bit and laying down flat again for a few seconds in what Dib had come to recognize over the years as a submissive/fearful gesture. His antennae flicked like that when Dib had him pinned in a situation he wasn't sure he could get out of... 

For a moment they stared at each other. 

It was that moment that Dib realized that he wasn't going to leave this night. He didn't even know if he could. There was something mesmerizing about the Irken's eyes. He managed to tear his own eyes away for a second, only long enough to glance towards the door. He couldn't do it though and after a moment he squeezed his eyes shut. He looked down at the floor then looked back at Zim again. Slowly he straightened and even more slowly began to make his way across the room towards the Irken. 

Zim's antennae fell flat and stayed flat as he approached. He said nothing. His eyes weren't completely hostile however, but rather somewhat pleading. 

"You missed," Dib noted. 

The Irken nodded ever so slightly. 

"Are you in pain?" Dib asked, a bit morbidly curious. For some reason he felt it fitting that Zim should be in pain... he had seemed to be in pain, all evening in fact... 

The Irken nodded again, much more hesitantly this time. 

Dib stopped a couple of feet away from Zim. He cocked his head to the side as he looked down at the alien. "Will you die?" When Zim didn't answer or nod right away, he elaborated. "If I don't... you know..." He flushed slightly pink. 

The Irken shrugged. He didn't know. 

Dib stared at the alien for a long moment. Finally he shut his eyes. There were so many reasons why he should just turn around and try to walk away. There were so many other reasons why he wanted to stay. A big argument in favor of staying was pure academic fascination. He wanted to experience this. Well, maybe not necessarily this, but this would be a good opportunity to get his hands on the Irken. He could get his hands on every available square inch of him and... 

Another argument told him he had no idea what would happen to him if he left. Or shot the alien and ended up leaving whatever this was unfinished. He knew the alien had infected him. Sudden thoughts of Zim's clothes... or what remained of them came to mind. And the blood. He didn't want that to happen to him... 

The deciding factor though, would have to be the fact that he was so hard it hurt. He hadn't even known that was possible. 

So all and all there wasn't much to decide on really. He drew in a nervous breath and let it out slowly, then stepped forwards. He crouched beside the alien. Reaching out, he hesitated for a moment, then touched a smooth green cheek with the very tips of his fingers. 

Zim didn't do anything. The very faintest tremors ran up and down the skin beneath his fingers, but he didn't move. His eyes remained focused off at a spot beyond Dib. Dib reached out and gently laid his other hand on Zim's neck, down where the bottom of his neck met his thin shoulders. Still Zim didn't move. He barely even blinked, his body loose and pliable under Dib's fingers. 

Suddenly Dib was reminded of the chickens on his uncle's farm, back in a time when he was little and his dad still kept tabs with family. He was quite young, maybe six or so, but he and Gaz had had fun terrorizing the chickens while the adults socialized during that visit. After what seemed like hours of fun he had actually surprised himself by catching one of them and had managed to hold on to it's foot as it made a desperate bid to get away. After a while the chicken stopped trying to escape and Dib had laid it down on the ground carefully on it's side. He had been surprised when the chicken had just laid there instead of trying to get away again, still and quiet as Dib petted it's pretty white and brown feathers. Now that he was older he knew that the reason why the chicken hadn't fought back was because it was scared... and wasn't moving out of hope that Dib would just leave it alone if it appeared to be dead... 

He wondered if the Zim wasn't moving then, for the same reason the chicken hadn't... out of fear, whether for his life or otherwise. Dib considered, but then frowned. No. Zim was no barnyard animal. He was much more hostile than that. Even if the Irken was physically unable to fight him right now, he was sure that at any given moment he would react with vibrant hatred and scream and yell at him... 

"Zim?" He whispered softly. Still Zim didn't react. He gulped, suddenly nervous. He tried to shake it off and continued, reaching down and turning Zim over onto his back. He pressed his hands against the Irken's sexless pale green chest, running his fingertips gently over the barely noticeable network of scars. Zim was still, and as limp as a rag doll underneath his hands. Except for the very fine trembling...

"Zim." Dib repeated, a little louder. He didn't want this. His hands fell away. He had always been fairly good at fighting off various methods of mind control, and despite anything that the scent Zim was giving off was doing to him, his rational mind still broke through. He didn't want Zim to just lie there and let him do whatever to his body. It made the sick feeling that he felt only a few short days before return and he had decided he hated that feeling. 

"I'm not going to do anything until you-- do something," Dib said finally, circling his hand in the air to indicate that something-ness. 

Zim blinked and turned his head slowly to look at him. His red eyes flickered down Dib's body and back to his face again. "Dib human?" He asked, his voice very small and uncertain. 

Dib looked at him and shook his head once. _No_. 

A visible shiver ran through Zim's body, shaking him from head to foot. For a moment the alien just lay there in the wake of it, focused off to the side for a moment again, his brow curved pensively. Then he looked up at the human again and suddenly extended his arms towards the other. 

Dib blinked, taken aback for a moment. Then, hesitantly, he leaned down and pulled the alien to him. 

He was a bit surprised when Zim nestled against his chest, his hands flexing against the cloth of his shirt. "Don't hurt Zim," The alien said softly after a moment. His voice was pleading. Imploring. "Please." He turned his face up, gazing up at Dib with his large red eyes. "Don't hurt Zim..." 

Something wrenched at Dib's insides again, and he almost felt like he was going to be sick again. He quickly realized what it was though... 

He was right after all. The alien was scared. Perhaps terrified would be a better term. Zim didn't know what was happening to him. Everything he had come to depend on had forsaken him now, his advanced technology could do nothing for him. Ego meant nothing in the wake of fear and the unknown. 

_'This creature in your arms,'_ Dib thought to himself, _'This creature in your arms is alive. It's not human, but it thinks and feels and fears just like you.'_

_'You will not hurt it.'_ He was surprised at how thoroughly convinced he was when he thought that. _'You will not...'_

"It's okay," He told the alien, leaning forwards and gently laying Zim back down on the floor. "It's okay," he repeated quietly in reply to the sudden wild look of panic in the Irken's eyes. He reached up and stroked a cheek. "I'll try my best to be careful, 'kay?" He said. 

Zim calmed somewhat and managed the barest nod in response. 

Dib smiled and leaned down, turning his attention to other things. He inhaled deeply, taking in the pleasurable scent. So good... he pressed his face up against the alien's collarbone, (little bit surprised to find a quite human-esque collarbone), and felt as if he was drowning in it. He could feel Zim's unsure hands clench and unclench in his hair. He pulled away only a tiny bit, and continued to touch the alien, his hands running down his sides, marveling at the smooth poreless skin found there. He finally got up the bravery and desperation to touch where he was most curious, his fingers gently exploring the alien at and in the strange spot between his legs. This time he heard the quiet intake of breath, and his eyes darted back to the Irken's face quickly, partly to reassure himself that he had not, in fact, hurt him. He was relieved to see the opposite-- the Irken was giving him a more than pleading look though half massed and hazed eyes, his mouth open slightly as he panted softly. 

That was all the encouragement that Dib needed. He had wrestled himself out of his restricting clothing in record time. The next thing he knew he was embracing Zim's smaller body, holding it to his, his face buried in the wonderful warm scent and every inch of his body burning with itching desire. 

Maybe he really _did _need therapy, was his last rational thought before he plunged into the quite literal unknown. 

_'Hi, my name is Dib, and the first time I ever had sex it was with an alien who wanted to take over the planet... on the floor of one of the rooms in his elaborate base no less...'_

_'... am I freaky or what?'_

~~~


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes** : Once again, I'd like to thank my beta, J. Random Lurker... 

~~~  
Chapter 4  
~~~

No doubt about it... the alien was asleep. That in it's self wasn't funny, what made it funny was the fact that exactly a half a minute before he had fallen asleep, Zim had told Dib rather adamantly that he was Irken and thus didn't sleep at all...

Dib rolled away from Zim and sat up, peering down at the slumbering form beside him. Many different thoughts and feelings clashed and clamored for attention in his mind as he did so. It left him confused and a little bit lost. 

He frankly didn't know what to think. 

He tried to organize his thoughts. Yes he had just had sex with an alien. Yes that alien had been Zim, who had been his mortal enemy for almost four years. Even as he thought it, even as he knew he had just done so, a little less than ten minutes prior, he was having a VERY hard time believing it. 

Sighing, Dib ran a hand through his hair, then ran the other hand through the other side and clenched his skull for a brief moment. 

The whole incident hadn't been entirely *unpleasant*... but even though Dib had nothing to compare it to, he couldn't help but to think it could have gone better. He hadn't hurt the Irken, or at least he had tried very hard not to. Despite that the alien had let out strange little whimpering cries during it all. And he hadn't stopped making those noises until Dib was done. 

Damn that sucked. Afterwards, before Zim had fallen asleep, he had asked him rather breathlessly if he had hurt him. Zim had said, with his usual vibrancy, that _no_, he hadn't, and it would take much more then that to bring down a mighty member of the Irken elite, blah, blah. Then he looked up at Dib with a particular uncertain look on his face and asked if he was done. When Dib said yes, he was fairly sure he was, Zim had smirked and looked more than pleased. It wasn't a minute later that he was out cold beside the human. 

Dib sighed, released his head and shook it. After a moment he managed to get to his feet and half hobble over to his clothes. (How did they get all the way over there?) He yanked them on again, despite the weariness in his bones that demanded that he sit back down again and perhaps even get some sleep himself. His body did not care if he was butt naked or not, he was that exhausted. 

Maybe he should just go back home. 

He turned towards the door, paused, then turned back and looked at Zim.

He needed the alien awake actually. He had several questions he needed to ask him, about the whole entire encounter for one... about the blood, about the mating. Why had Zim imprinted him in the first place? Was it just an elaborate survival mechanism? Could the Irken body do more than just grow "parts" as needed? And more importantly, was it going to happen again? 

Sighing he trekked back over to where the Irken lay. He studied him, with his hands on his hips and a frown on his face. Finally he sighed and crouched down again. "You are much to much trouble, you know that?" He commented softly, running his fingers across the alien's brow. A very faint smile crept across Zim's face and he stirred, muttered something about pigs, then turned over and stilled. 

Dib blinked. Reaching out, he shook the Irken's shoulder. "Zim?" He asked quietly. No reply, and no mutterings this time either. Zim didn't wake. 

After another unsuccessful try at waking Zim, Dib removed his hands and shut his eyes. After a moment he opened them again. 

"Computer?" He called out. 

"What?" Was the irritable response. _'Well at least some things never change...'_ Dib thought sourly. Grumpy computer. If he had his way he'd replace Zim's computer's voice with a polite and pleasant female one... 

"Can you make a bed for me?" Dib asked instead. "Like one for sleeping in?" 

The computer was silent for a moment. Then, "Fiiiiine," It grumbled. 

Dib sat and waited. He was just about to ask if the computer understood him when suddenly half of the floor in one corner of the room folded out and disappeared down below. It snapped back up again a moment later, and on it was a bed. 

Dib stared. "Wow," He muttered out loud. Sure enough, it was a bed all right. A large one, king sized, covered in sheets and blankets that were in turn covered with little Irken symbols. It even had a twin pair of huge matching pillows. If the computer could make him this, he wondered what else the computer could do for him...

Suddenly he thought of exactly what he could get the computer to do for him. "Computer?" He called out again. 

The computer grunted at him this time, not even bothering to reply. 

Dib smiled. "Computer, do you think Zim is better and would be able to wear clothes now?" He asked. 

"Fact unknown," The computer replied tersely. "I'm a computer, not a doctor," It added sarcastically. 

Dib frowned pensively. "Can you make an educated guess?" He tried after a pause, a bit dryly.

He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard the computer mutter obscenities under it's breath. Finally it replied. 

"Zim should be fine and he can wear clothes again," it said. "I _guess_."

"Good!" Dib said. He leaned down suddenly, gathering the Irken's body up in his arms. He was surprised at how light Zim was. He was also surprised (and a bit grateful) that Zim didn't wake up. "Can you make some of those for me?" 

"Some of-- what?" The computer replied. 

Dib was beginning to feel rather glad the computer didn't have neck... because if he did, he would have been sorely tempted to wring it. "Some CLOTHES?" He replied. "For Zim." He elaborated. 

The computer didn't answer him, but after a moment the floor gave out again, taking away the bed. Then it returned, same as it was before, but this time with an invader outfit lying at the foot of it. 

Dib grinned, shook his head, and walked over to the bed. He placed the Irken down on it, then picked up the clothes. A moment later he was struggling to get Zim back into them, wondering vaguely if he was going to wake up in the meantime. He didn't. As Dib dressed him he was able to explore, more with his eyes than anything else, the rest of Zim's body. He hadn't really had time to do so before after all... 

He wasn't very surprised to find a very small sealed opening just under the small of Zim's back. After a moment of looking at it decided it could only be a waste disposal location, and he was willing to bet it acted as a rectum and urethra combined. He had assumed the Irken had one of those, as he had seen him eat before and he highly doubted Zim ever regurgitated his food. (He had never seen him do anything that involved bringing up his food again-- outside of choking on human food in a melodramatic manner.) Other details of interest actually came from a close inspection of the Irken's face and these were ones he knew about already. Zim had very small slitted openings under his eyes, assumably for smell... and the tiniest holes along the grooved ridges of his antennae, which Dib speculated was part of the alien's method of hearing. The rest of the Irken's body, save for the faint scarring on the chest arms and legs and of course the new part between his legs was just an expanse of smooth pale green poreless skin. There wasn't even a pattern to it. He didn't have any fingerprints or anything. 

"And just think," Dib muttered to himself as he worked on pulling the Irken's shirt over his head. "Just a week ago I was eager to get you out of these to see how you ticked... and all I had to do was sleep with you to get you naked." His mouth twisted upwards into a bitter smile. Then he shook his head ever so slightly, forcing himself to think of something else. 

That didn't work very well... he began to wonder about getting the Irken onto an autopsy table again. The bitter smile on Dib's face grew cruel at the thought. That didn't last very long though. His smile faded and he sighed. "Naw," He decided. Zim's insane robot was up there somewhere. Getting past Gir, he felt, would be more trouble than it was worth_._ And more than that... _'You can't do it anyway... remember?'_ He thought to himself. He couldn't. He was such a wimp... 

When Dib was done dressing the alien, he gently pushed him over to the very far side of the spacious bed. Then he sighed and flopped down beside him. He still needed answers to his questions, which meant asking Zim about them. Since Zim was asleep he decided that it wouldn't be so bad if he just lay there on the bed and waited... and surprisingly enough it was one of the most comfortable beds he had ever laid on. Dib cupped his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling, taking in the slightly disjointed, disorganized mass of tubes and pipes several meters up. 

A minute or so later the irony of the situation hit him. _'Hahaha,'_ he laughed to himself, turning his head to look down at Zim's slumbering form. Here he was, lying on a bed after having sex with some... thing. The irony of the situation was the fact that they had done the process completely out of order. Smirking Dib returned his gaze back to the ceiling, subconsciously nestling deeper into the warm, comfortable blankets. "Shoulda thought about the bed before I decided to sleep with him," He chuckled softly to himself. 

His smile faded as he remembered the events of the evening. It wasn't really funny actually. At all. So he had sex with an alien. He once again remembered Zim's pitiful whimpers as he thrust... 

_'Oh god...'_ He shut his eyes and scrubbed the back of his hand across them. 

_'Different species are NOT meant to have sex with other species for a reason,' _He suddenly thought to himself vehemently. It was a well-written rule in the animal kingdom and he felt that it should very well apply here. Humans and Irkens were more different than even the creatures on earth, given the fact that they had evolved from the geological processes of two *completely* different worlds. Not only that, he was sure the little prideful beast of a creature had been lying. _'You said it didn't HURT Zim and then you did one of your little rants, but you are quite good at lying aren't you? Stupid alien... stupid fucking alien--'_

His stomach suddenly lurched and he turned away, towards the edge of the bed. He gripped the side of it as he gagged once, twice, then stopped, drawing in shuddering breaths in the wake of convulsions. After a moment his stomach decided to calm down and Dib rolled back again, wearily burrowing back down into the blankets again. He didn't look at Zim. After another moment or so he shut his eyes... 

~~~

Dib hadn't meant to fall asleep himself, but he did, snoring softly as he slept on the huge bed. What woke him up was the feeling that he was suffocating. 

He opened his eyes. When he did, he found that he was staring right at a twin pair of bright blue round objects.

"HI!" Gir chirped. 

Dib screamed and sat right up in the bed. 

The robot leapt off of Dib's chest and jumped down to the floor. He began to run around the room as Dib panted and stared at the blur of a robot. 

It was about then that he realized that he couldn't see anything but blurs. Cursing he quickly fumbled around, looking desperately for his glasses. He found Zim, who still was lying beside him, but no glasses. He looked at Gir then looked back at the green blur that was Zim's face. He started slightly when twin red blurs joined the green and turned towards him. Zim was awake. 

"Oh," The Irken said in way of a greeting. "You're **still **here?" 

For some reason the alien's flippant remark stung a little. Dib drew back. "I... I can't find my glasses," he said quickly, feeling rather dumb. 

"Stupid worm monkey." Zim replied. He sat up. For a moment he twitched, then stretched, noting that, for the first time in several days his skin didn't burn and he didn't ache... at least not all over. It was enough. "I am **_cured_**!" He announced, stunningly happy about this. He leapt down off the bed and walked towards the center of the room. 

"GIR!" He shouted. 

Gir skidded to a halt in front of Zim. "Yes my master," The robot replied, saluting. Dib could see a blur of red where blue was before, and knew Gir had just launched into duty mode. The boy swung his legs over the side of the bed, squinting as he tried to focus in on the two. 

"What are those?" Zim exclaimed, an exasperated note in his voice. He leaned down towards the robot, then leaned back again. "GIR! Give the filthy hu~man back his seeing eye devices and get him out of my base immediately!" With that the alien turned and began to march, stiff kneed, towards the exit. 

Dib's jaw dropped. "What?" He leapt down off the bed as well and took a couple of hesitant steps towards the retreating alien. "Wait Zim!" He called out. 

Zim turned. "What, human? I have work to do!" Even blurry Dib could see him shake a fist in his direction. 

Dib was taken a bit aback despite himself. "Is that it?" He asked. "I-- I mean, are we done?" He fumbled, feeling very flustered. 

"Yes!" The alien replied. "Oh yes, we are so very much DONE Dib," He declared. He turned away again.

"Wait! What--" Dib blinked and fumbled, trying to remember all the hundred and one questions he had had for the alien before he had fallen asleep and what sleep had apparently robbed from his mind. Finally he launched onto one, the most important one of all, at least in his mind presently. "Am I okay? What about the stuff that was in my blood?" He asked a bit pleadingly. 

He couldn't see it, but he could imagine Zim's face crinkling up into a frown. "Why should I care?" The alien replied after a moment, very seriously. "You've served your purpose. Zim has better things to do than worry about the state of a wretched creature like you! SO much!!" With that the alien turned away again. 

"_Wait!_" Dib called out again, reaching out towards the alien despite the fact that he was half a room away from him. "Zim, come on!" He whined. "You at least owe me--" 

"I owe you nothing! Do not bother me!" Zim replied in a bit of a sing song voice, as he kept right on walking. His hand waved back at Dib dismissively. 

"Zim!" Dib paused and shouted it louder. "_ZIM!!_" When the alien still didn't reply, his shoulders fell forwards slightly. He shook his head, suddenly feeling very... down and out for some reason. Not to mention confused. _'I guess that's it then.' _He thought to himself. He still didn't have the answers to **any** of his questions... 

"Aww... don't be sad!" Gir declared, launching himself at Dib from out of no where and wrapping himself around his head. 

"GIR!" Dib cried out as he suddenly had the task of valiantly trying to wrestle Gir off of himself and retrieving his glasses as the same time. When he managed to look up again, fumbling his now finger smudged spectacles back onto his face, Zim was completely gone. 

~~~

According to the position of the sun, it was mid morning when Dib got out of Zim's base. After being startled over the time (mid morning meant he had spent all night and then some unconscious on a _bed_ in Zim's base) Dib felt an overwhelming sense of the surreal settle over him. Somehow the world didn't seem quite right anymore. Even the gnomes seemed to have ceased to recognize him as a threat, and didn't shoot at him at all as he walked down the steps of the house. That only deepened his discomfort, the gnomes *always* shot at him. The neighbors added to it. They seemed to feel it fit to wave cheerfully at Dib as he walked by. Dib managed a half wave and a nervous smile back and quickened his pace. 

It didn't even occur to him until he was halfway home again, and the thought actually made him stumble and nearly fall over flat onto the concrete sidewalk. He was so focused on trying to sort though his own state of mind, that he had completely forgot the most important thing of all. 

Sex meant reproduction. Reproduction meant babies. Babies meant...

Dib's eyes widened suddenly and he clamped a hand over his mouth. OH _GOD_... 

Dreadful visions of half human half Irken abominations began to dance around in his head. 

That's it. The moment he saw Zim again, _if_ he saw Zim again, that would be the first thing he asked him. As horrible as it sounded, he needed to know if the Irken Invader was pregnant... 

It was mid morning. The clock on the wall read 11:42 a.m. when he walked in the front door of his house. He shrugged it off and took off his shoes and coat, hanging them in the closet. He was startled when he saw his sister watching TV as he made to walk by the living room.

Dib stopped stock still in his tracks, his eyes wide. His first thought was something to the effect of _'I wonder if she knows?'_ THAT he immediately dismissed as silly... there was no possible reason Gaz would have ever expected something happened... like _that_ between him and Zim. Instead she probably thought he had gone and gotten himself captured by the Irken. And, furthermore, she probably didn't care. She _was_ Gaz after all. 

Speaking of which... Dib circled into the living room and peered down at his sister. "What are you doing home from school?" He asked.

Gaz shrugged. "Eh," She replied. She didn't even look up from where she sat slouched on the couch, can of pop in one hand, the channel changer in the other. 

Dib raised an eyebrow. After a moment it became apparent that Gaz wasn't going to say anything or explain what she was doing there. He shrugged as well and turned away, towards the basement stairs...

"So are you still sick?" Gaz's sour voice drifted at him from the couch. 

Dib turned back part way. "I don't think so," he said.

Gaz snorted. "That's to bad," She replied sarcastically. She flicked off the TV and jumped down from the couch. "I'm going to school," She announced. With that she strode into the front foyer, grabbed her book bag down from the shelf and her jacket from the closet. A moment later she had left, closing the door with a bang behind her. 

Dib watched her go. He realized suddenly that Gaz had probably stayed at home waiting for him to arrive. A slow small smile creeped across his face. He was sort of... touched, actually. The smile turned into a grin as he took the stairs down two at a time. 

His day got even better from there. After taking a sample of his own blood and looking it over and testing it in every single way possible he was pleasantly surprised and happy to discover that the little whatever they were, they were no longer in his blood. That meant that Zim was right... not only was the little alien cured, he was as well. He hummed to himself tunelessly as he spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and disinfecting his lab.

By the time he was done it was early in the evening. He wandered back upstairs, ate food, and had a shower partially to scrub every last inch of his body clean of anything Zim could have possibly left on him. After that he climbed into bed.

He lay there, staring at the ceiling, at the glowy stars and moons that decorated his ceiling. He wasn't really tired, or rather his mind was going a mile a minute and wouldn't let him fall asleep even if he wanted to. It seemed to insist on returning to the incident with the little alien again and again, frustratingly enough. He just didn't seem to have the ability to get over it. 

Another disturbing thought had occurred to him, beyond the pregnancy one. He wasn't sure what he thought about the whole entire Zim growing a part thing anyway. 

Not that it really mattered to someone like him, who prided himself in being at least a little bit more open minded than most the assholes his age, but the gay question tickled at the back of his mind. He knew that he shouldn't be concerned about it, after all he could easily claim that he was drugged, and he had never had a... problem finding girls in his class attractive before. Unfortunately for him he also found air headed stupidity a huge turn off. He still stuck by the fervent hope that maybe one day he'd find someone that at least shared some sort of intellectual rapport with him. Tak had been cool...

He slapped a hand over his eyes and groaned. Tak had been an alien as well. "Maybe I'm an extreme xenophile*," He couldn't help but to quip out loud. 

_'Haha... that isn't funny.'_ He thought back at himself sourly. 

He turned over on to his side, staring at the odd shapes and forms of his bedroom furniture in the darkness as his mind continued to deliberate. In fact, the whole entire growing a vagina-type thing, besides making him feel more than mildly uncomfortable, was something that his mind seemed unwilling to let go of. He had always been so sure, after meeting Tak, that the Irkens had two distinctive sexes, both male and female. Though he wasn't sure what, exactly, they were equipped with to deal with the incidence of children (which why he was so eager to see Zim naked in gym class), he figured that they would somewhat fall along the same lines of humans. Zim, after all, did have two arms, two legs, a head and all of the basic shapes that were found on a human. Apparently he had been dreadfully wrong about that. 

Frankly after last night he didn't know what to think. He hadn't expected Irkens to be so sexually ambiguous. Furthermore he hadn't expected to have to learn about this sexual ambiguity first hand. 

How did he, exactly, know that Zim was a little guy alien anyway? And how did he know that Tak was a girl alien? Beyond the fact that they dressed up as a male and a female human respectively and their antennae were slightly different, was there really any way of knowing? Besides ripping off their little invader outfits and checking?

So even if Zim managed to grow a vagina, that certainly didn't change him any. He still remembered that morning in clear detail. The ass... 

No, Zim was still Zim, and as jerkish as ever. His "you're **still** here?" comment still stung a little. Yup, Zim was a jerk, despite whatever accessories he had acquired. 

But then, even if he had been gender neutral before, he wasn't now. Thanks to him or not. _'Which makes him... what then?'_ Dib thought to himself. _'A female Irken in drag?'_

He rolled over once more and buried his face into his pillow. "I'm so fucking confused..." he grumbled into it. He looked up after a moment and took his glasses off, placing them on the bedside table. Then he shut his eyes and sighed, returning his face to the pillow. It was probably futile anyway. He was trying to place human sexual characteristics on an alien who was of a race that was completely different than his. If it wasn't for that human _part_...

~~~

He was still no less confused the next day at school, but he tried to force himself to not think about it anymore... at least not while he was in school. It actually wasn't all that hard, because Zim was in his class, in the first place, and in the second place chose to ignore him with the same haughty air of superiority that he always did. Dib shook his head with a little bit of amazement as he stared at the back of Zim's head from his seat one row down and two. Glad to know some things never changed... 

At lunch that day he wasted no time in confronting the small alien on the subject that was a bit more important than an alien's sexuality. That was the repulsive subject of children. 

He found him quickly, eating lunch by himself near the back of the cafeteria. He put down his lunch tray deliberately across from him. And sat.

The Irken eyed him from over his food. Dib watched as he placed a spoonful of soup into his mouth, choked for a moment then made a huge display of swallowing it down. Complete with sound effects. 

The compete idiocy of the situation was not lost on Dib_. 'I KNOW you're an alien! I've seen your ship! I've seen your base! I've seen your leaders!' _He wanted to scream at him_. 'Damn it, I've seen you naked, Zim! I've even had SEX with you! And you're still trying to convince me you're human?!'_

Dib forced himself to bite his tongue, no matter how hard it was for him to do, and waited patiently until Zim completed his little display. He was quite proud of himself actually. Four years ago all the things, (save maybe the naked part and the sex part), he would have said out loud to the little Irken Invader. Hooray for self restraint... 

"Are you done?" He asked finally, dryly when Zim had regained control over himself. 

"Yes actually," Zim replied. He put down his spoon. 

"Good," Dib returned tersely. He glanced one way, then the next, then leaned in closer to the alien. "Zim," He asked in a voice low enough that only the Irken could hear. "Are you pregnant?" 

Zim jerked back away from him, almost as if he had been burned. For a moment he stared at the human wide eyed. Then... "No no!" He said, smiling and waving his hand in the air. "Don't be silly..."

Dib's eyes narrowed. Reaching out across the table he grasped Zim's shirt and yanked the alien closer. "Don't TOY me Zim," He hissed at the alien once he had gotten his complete undivided attention and he was being stared at out of false human contacts. "Why else would have you gone and 'imprinted' me anyway?" He snorted scornfully. "For fun?" 

Zim narrowed his eyes slightly. After a moment he batted the human away again. Dib let him go and fell back into his chair, but he didn't take his eyes off of Zim. 

"Tell me _Zim_," Dib stressed after a moment. 

The Irken glanced down at his bowl for a moment, his mouth pressed into an angry frown, then looked back up again. "Zim is NOT pregnant," He said after a moment. "And even if Zim _was _carrying icky things, the smeets would never work out." 

"I'm still trying to figure out how _we_ worked out," Dib replied sharply. 

Zim's irritated gaze fell back on the human boy. "Haha, you are very funny!" The Irken replied suddenly. "I told you it was heat. Nothing more." He tossed his nose into the air for a moment, then looked back again and sighed. "It is impossible!" He declared moving his hands about in wide gestures when he saw that Dib was looking at him skeptically, with one eyebrow raised. "Look, you take um..." Zim paused for a moment considering. "A cow and a moose! If they breed, their offspring are infertile, are they not?" 

Dib blinked. "I think you mean a horse and a donk--" he began. 

"Yes, yes, whatever," Zim cut in. He continued, very much on a roll. "A cow and a moose can not _breed_ without creating such useless creatures, how can one really expect MY superior race, which is VERY different from your-- less superior one, to breed and create anything at all?" He raised both arms up in a gesture of triumph, having reached his conclusion. "You do see my magnificent point do you not?" He shook his fist at Dib.

Dib's eyebrow was still raised in a very unimpressed way. He considered trying to explain to Zim again that such a union between a cow and a moose was impossible, but he knew from years of experience that it was pointless. Arguing that his race was any more or less superior than Zim's was impossible as well. The alien wouldn't listen. He never did. So he just sighed and nodded. "Yes, Zim." He replied, with strained patience. 

"Haha! Filthy creature, do not question the INCREDIBLE intelligence of Zim! See? It is impossible for us to have worm-smeets!" Zim nodded eagerly and picked up his spoon again. 

Dib was silent for a looooong moment. At the same time his mind was reviewing why, exactly, he had ever been upset about maybe hurting the Irken the other day. In fact he was running though his mind exactly why he hadn't just decided to, hell, hurt him _more_. Better yet, he should have just kept the brainless idiot on the autopsy table and killed him when he had the chance, namely the moment he got him into his lab. It would have saved him a lot of grief... 

After a moment he regained control of his anger enough to muster up a retort. "But not as impossible as you, oh, I don't know... growing something **human**... in order to have sex with another **human**..." He pointed out, laying the sarcasm on thickly. 

Zim looked up at him, startled, and dropped his spoon with a clatter.

There. That was something. "Well?" Dib pressed. 

The alien was beginning to fidget. He twitched, his eyes moving from one side to the next. After a moment he stopped completely, his head bowed towards his lap. For a long moment he sat there, then suddenly looked up at the human. He looked very angry... perhaps the angriest Dib had ever seen him, his eyes blazing, even behind the contacts. "If I AM _pregnant_," He hissed, stressing the last word like it was a disgusting disease, "You can be rest assured that any abominations from that******horrible******union will _not_ be brought to life through the body of _this _Irken elite," He seethed. His looked both very furious and very very serious. 

Dib looked at the alien for a moment. He blinked slowly, a bit taken aback. That was about the most clear-headed sensible 'feeling' type thing he had ever heard Zim say. Then he smiled, though it was a rather tight lipped one. He got to his feet, deliberately picking up his tray as he did so. "Good," he replied tersely. With that he turned and walked away. 

He had nearly reached the door when he dared to look back again. Zim was exactly where he had left him, hunched angrily over his lunch tray. His head was down, focused on the gloved hands clenched in his lap. 

Dib studied him for a long moment, but the Irken didn't move. Finally Dib shrugged and turned away, leaving the cafeteria and the alien behind him.   


It took Zim about a minute before he recovered. He sat up, a bit shakily and gripped his spoon again. He would not let that nasty earth creature affect him. No. He was a member of the Irken elite, and he meant every word he said. He would destroy the little parasite-like life forms growing inside him, if not now, then as soon as he possibly could. There was no way such sub-Irken _things_ would ever be allowed to live... 

A voice from behind him caught him unaware. 

"You had SEX with my brother?" It said. "Now _that's_ disgusting." 

Zim whirled about. "Dib sister!" He gasped. 

Gaz barely afforded him a glance from her hand-held game deck she was playing on. "But kinda funny in a way." She completed with a smirk and a half shrug. With that she walked away... leaving an alarmed alien staring after her in mild trepidation.   


~~~

Dib stayed late after school that day, partly to run around to gather up the schoolwork he had missed in the week or so he had "been sick". He had asked Gaz to get his work for him, but she wasn't the best at following his instructions... 

School had been out for nearly and hour when he finally managed to leave the grounds. He walked home with a gloom about him, irritated without really knowing why. He supposed it was just the aftermath of his noon hour confrontation with the Irken. 

At least he didn't have to worry about any deformed children, if Zim's word was to be trusted. 

The Irken's stupidity bothered him as well, though he had no idea why about that either. "It's not like he's going to all of a sudden change. That's just silly," he reprimanded himself softly. 

Even so, his dark mood didn't change any. It was still with him as he approached his house... and noted a pair of sleek black vans parked in front of it. 

Huh. Dib stared at the vehicles as he slowly made his way up his walk. That was... odd. He was reaching for the handle of the front door when suddenly it jerked out of his hand. He startled at the sight of his father and two men he didn't know standing just inside the door. The two men were tall and grumpy looking, and were both dressed in identical uniform-like type outfits of an olive green color. His father was in his plain white lab coat. As usual. 

"Dad?" Dib asked, blinking up at the professor. 

"Oh hello there son!" Professor Membrane leant down and patted him on the head even as he stepped by him and onto the front walk. The two uniformed men followed suite. "Take care of your sister while I'm away all right?" He thrust his hand out, waving backwards at him. "I have very important work to do!" 

"Er... okay...?" Dib replied from where he stood in the doorframe. He watched the men as they make their way down the walk then shut the door; then turned and walked into the living room. He half noted Gaz was sitting on the couch with the channel changer in one hand and a can of pop in the other. Again. He went to the window and pulled the curtain back, watching out of it as the two strangers and his dad came to a stop in front of the black vans. 

"Who are those men Gaz?" He asked. Suddenly he remembered the night over a week previous when he had been told that he shouldn't be out so late by an unidentifiable person in a truck. For some reason these men reminded Dib of the first man... 

He could imagine rather than see Gaz shrug behind him. "I dunno," She said. "Some sort of secret service." He could tell by the tone of her voice that she really didn't care. 

Secret service? Dib squinted and peered closer. They had no identifying marks on their clothing, but their outfits reminded him of something. It was then that he caught the glint of silver from around one of the men's neck, just inside the collar. Dib blinked and focused on the other one. He couldn't tell on that one, he was turned away, but the first man's neck glinted again and again as he talked with the other man and his father. 

Huh. Necklaces? He caught another glint through the buttons of the man's uniform further down his chest. They were... dog tags? But that would mean... Dib scanned the uniforms again and realized what they reminded him of. 

"Gaz," He said suddenly, turning away from the window. "I don't think those men are from any sort of secret service." He turned back again, watching as the men got back in the van, one with his father. "I think they're military!" 

Gaz grunted at him in reply. 

Dib did care, or at least was a little bit curious. "What on earth could dad be doing for the military?" He asked out loud, partially to himself. 

"I don't care!" Gaz shouted at him suddenly. Dib turned back to see that his sister giving him the evil eye. "Can't you see I'm_ trying _to watch TV here?" She growled at him. 

Dib turned back and stared for a moment before sighing and rolling his eyes. "All right, fine." He grumbled. He let go of the curtain and stalked out of the room.

He had new and interesting stuff to research anyway... 

~~~

*According to dictionary.com, a _xenophile_ is someone who is attracted to that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures.


	5. Chapter 5 Christmas Special

**Author's notes**: This is the "Christmas Special" chapter! Writing this was very amusing as it is June and Christmas is about the last thing on my mind. Needless to say I spent a good deal of this chapter listening to Christmas carols at the same time to get myself in the mood. :D 

Thanks once again to my very wise beta, J. Random Lurker, for her writing help and advice and to all my reviewers for their support. :) 

~~~

**Year 1, Weeks 3-6**

Two weeks passed like the slow ticking of a watched clock. Dib, no matter how many times he tried to hack on his home computer or on his mobile laptop, came no closer to discovering the hows and whys of what exactly his dad was doing for the military. All the information pertaining to his father's work appeared to be completely under lock and key. All he knew was the professor was currently located on a military base about an hour's drive outside of the city. And, whatever it was it was he was doing was occupying all of his time... his show even went off the air, opting to play reruns at various times during the day when nothing else good was on.

Beyond that curiosity nothing much changed in Dib's life. He worked though his feelings, at least as much as he wanted to, and came to a big fat 'I don't care' on the subject. Seeing as he didn't see any sort of relationship between him and the small Irken continuing, he refused to think about it anymore. It was a one time deal. Since he had discovered that he couldn't kill the alien, even more now that they had been intimate at one point, Dib lost all interest in the alien aspect of the paranormal. It was almost like old news to him now. Been there, done that... 

As for the small Irken, Zim had started coming to school again, but his presence was barely noticeable. The alien was cautious, almost fearful as he ghosted through the halls. Dib had even tried to approach him a couple of times, but Zim was quick to disappear before he could very close. 

Which is why he was so surprised when he did approach him on his own time... 

It was less than a week before school let out for Christmas vacation and Dib had been in the library at the time. He was on his laptop monitoring something he found vaguely interesting-- a cold war like situation his country was presently engaged in with another country. He had learnt about the same sort of thing happening before in his history class, and opted for considering it a slightly relevant thing to keep an eye out for. 

He saw the shadow fall over his laptop and keyboard before anything else. Dib looked up. The alien was standing on a chair on the opposite side of the table from him. It made him tall enough to hover above him and his lap top. A wide grin was on Zim's light green face. 

Dib sighed and looked back down. "What is it Zim?" He asked in a bored tone as he continued to type away. 

"Oh, nothing much." Zim replied airily. "Beyond the fact that I, Zim! Have come up with a MAGNIFICANT plan to take over your Earth... that's all." 

Dib looked up again with a raised eyebrow. "And you're telling me this... why?" He asked slowly. 

Zim stopped posturing and blinked at the human boy in a decidedly confused manner. "... because that is what we do?" He said finally. He thrust a finger at himself. "I try to take over your planet." He turned his finger back towards Dib. "You try to stop me. Yes?" 

"That is what we DID, yes..." Dib replied, looking away again. 

If Dib had been looking at the alien right then, he would have seen the awfully hurt look that crawled across his face. After a moment though, the alien had regained his momentum. "Ah but you see this plan is truly ingenious!" He thrust his finger into the air. He dropped his voice conspiriously. "But, earth boy, you can only see it if you come to my base..."

"Ha! Haha!" Dib let out a short bark of humorless laughter, looking back up at the alien with a good deal of incredulity on his face. "Do you by any chance remember what happened LAST time I went anywhere near your base?" Dib questioned in a dry sarcastic voice. The alien's eyes widened at his words and he actually fell back... then jumped off his chair. He continued to stare at Dib from where he stood on the floor. 

"Now think about that, and consider maybe WHY I'm not going to go anywhere NEAR your base voluntarily." Dib said sharply. _'Whoboy,'_ He thought to himself when he was done speaking. _'We still have a little bit of bitterness with us, don't we?' _He hadn't actually thought himself to be still angry about the incident, and the fact that Zim had been blatantly ignoring him since, until he spoke. 

"Oh." The Irken replied in a small voice. He fidgeted for a moment, then moved off to the side. Suddenly he grasped his chair he moved it over to set it beside Dib and sat in it, much to the human's irritation. He didn't say anything though, merely glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and kept on clicking on sites on his laptop.

"Whatcha doing?" Zim asked after a moment. 

Dib let out a frustrated sigh. "Nothing that would interest _you_." He replied. 

"Try me," Zim stressed. 

Dib made a face. "Ookay..." He said. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Two nations on our world right now are fighting." He described in layman's terms. "Mine and... someone else's." He gestured to his monitor's screen, where a map of the world was. "Right now both sides are just ignoring each other and developing weapons. Every once and a while their terrorists attack our side, but we haven't done anything yet..." He paused. "This is stupid." He added, glancing at the alien out of the corner of his eye. "You're not even a citizen of this WORLD, let alone country..." 

Zim cocked his head to the side in a curious way. "So?" He asked. 

"So? So--" Dib fell back in his chair with a sigh. "So nothing I guess." He said, a little surprised that he had come to such a conclusion. "I guess you have no wonderful solutions on how to solve this problem now do you?" 

"Of course I do!" Zim replied. With a flourish he brought a fist down into his other hand. "You crush your enemies beneath your feet! Subject them to your awesome might! Then you'll never have to worry about them and their icky terrorist-ness again."

Dib almost smiled. "That may work for you," he said. "But human nature isn't like that Zim." He explained. "As long as people are still alive, Zim, uprisings will occur. There will always be terrorism and rebellions." 

The alien blinked at him naively. "So destroy them all." He said simply. 

Dib brought his hand up to rub it across his forehead like he had a massive headache. "They can't do that either Zim," He explained in a slightly strained voice. 

Zim threw up his arms in frustration. "So what do you want then?" He asked. "Obviously if your enemy wishes to destroy you, you destroy them first, do you not? Otherwise you will continue fighting until BOTH of you are destroyed!" 

Dib opened his mouth... and then closed it again. "You know you might actually have a point..." 

"Of course I have a point!" Zim replied. "By Irk, why does Zim even bother? All I have to do is wait around for you stupid stink beasts to destroy yourselves! Then. Then you shall be RIPE for conquest!"

"Well I imagine a few humans would be left, even if..." Dib began. 

Zim wasn't done his rant yet. "_Then_ a new order can be brought to this world... an IRKEN order!" He finished triumphantly. 

Dib snorted and eyed the alien. "We need an Irken order like we need a bad disease, Zim." 

Zim looked at him like he had two heads. "Nonsense." He replied in a self assured voice. "An Irken order would be very good for you pitiful creatures."

That comment angered Dib slightly, but instead of retorting right away he instead closed his eyes and counted to three. "So... what? You think we should all become drones and bow down to one almighty Irken overlord?"

"Yes," Zim replied like it was the most natural thing in the universe. 

"So you mean... _you_ right?" Dib thrust a finger at the alien.

"Yes. Of course." Zim replied.

"What about your 'Tallest'?" Dib asked, a bit sarcastically.

Zim shifted in his chair. "Them too," He replied. 

Dib shook his head slowly. Zim was incredible. Still. "This is coming from the person whose said leaders are selected based on height," He commented dryly. 

"At least **_my_** leaders are not selection on their ability to make stupid faces on the TV-type thing." Zim shot back. 

"My leaders are NOT..." Dib stopped himself quickly, affording himself a glance at Zim.

The alien had the faintest smile on his face. 

Dib's jaw fell open. "Did you just make a joke?" He asked incredulously.

The smile wavered, then faded away. "I know not of jokes, human." The alien replied solemnly. 

Dib let out a short bark of laughter, the smile on his face splitting into a grin. "I think you just did!" 

The alien looked uncomfortable and shifted in his chair again. Suddenly he got off it. "I am going now." He announced. "I have much to do!"

"Oh. Okay..." Dib watched as he turned away. "Zim?" He called after him. 

Zim turned back part way. "Yes... earth stink?" He questioned. 

For a moment Dib had no idea what he was going to say. He knew he was going to say something... but what he really wanted to question Zim on... perhaps something to do with the fact that Zim's personality had changed quite a bit in the last little while. 'Why are you avoiding me?' It just wouldn't come out right. Especially in light of the fact that he had just refused to play with Zim like old times again. On that subject, maybe he should ask the alien what, exactly, had just happened. They had had a conversation. A real conversation. Finally Dib shook his head slightly. "Never mind." He said. 

Zim's eyes widened. "Never mind?" He repeated. "Do **_not_** waste my time then!" The alien completed in a high and mighty voice, instantly shattering all brief thoughts of friendship that may have been dancing around in Dib's head. With that the alien turned and marched right back out of the library, his legs stiff. Dib stared after him as he went. 

~~~

During the last week of school before Christmas vacation Dib watched with mixed horror and embarrassment as Zim return to his regular old egocentric self. He no longer ghosted through the halls of the school, but rather walked, stiff legged and with his nose in the air, looking every inch the Irken Invader that he was when he had first arrived on the planet, much to Dib's utter frustration. Now whenever he tried to talk to the Irken, he would only get the cold shoulder or be told off in Zim's usual ranty manner. Once Zim had even decided to jump up on a table to yell at Dib about being perfectly normal in front of the entire grade 9 class, much to Dib's utter embarrassment. Zim hadn't done that since Elementary Skool. He had sat there, with his head in his hands and listened more than watched as the teacher kicked Zim out of the room for disrupting the class. As he left the little Invader had shouted at Dib from the door that he'd never get him, which had left everyone staring at HIM...

He was embarrassed, partly for the Irken and partly for himself. Frankly he couldn't believe that what was only a short time ago he was the one right up there yelling right back at Zim. He was used to people staring at him... but people stared at him when he _spoke_, not when he was being silent. And now he was being silent. 

He was also quickly discovering that Zim acted up only if there were other people around... preferably huge amounts of them. Like the entire cafeteria for example. It was making everyone in the school avoid the two of them, not that they didn't already. 

Then came the day Dib just couldn't take it any longer. He exploded.

It was the last day of classes and he stood outside and to the side of the front doors of the school. He was up to his knees in a snow bank (it decided to dump a great amount of the white stuff a day previous) waiting for his sister to emerge from the building so that they could walk home together. 

Zim did so first. Dib watched out of the corner of his eye as the alien shivered for a moment, clenching his coat closer to himself. He looked like he was dressed in more than enough layers to keep a normal person toasty warm in Arctic North Pole-ish conditions, let alone NJ weather. Dib snorted softly. 

"Merry Christmas Zim," He called out to him in a somewhat cheery voice despite himself. Hey, it was the last day of classes for a whole two weeks, he figured he'd at least make an attempt to be civil.

The alien turned and looked at him, a surprised expression crossing his face for a very brief moment. It quickly turned into a condescending look. 

"I know not of your silly_ traditions _human," Zim declared, waving him away in a dismissing gesture. "Nor have I any desire to learn." He made his way down the steps and began to walk away. 

Dib swore under his breath, any cheerfulness he felt fleeing quickly. Zim DID know what Christmas meant... he had tried to take over the earth once at Christmas, dressed up as Santa Claus no less. So he was obviously lying, on purpose. "Why are you being such an idiot all of a sudden?!" Dib suddenly yelled after him. 

Zim walked a couple more steps before turning back suddenly. He shook his fist at Dib from the safe distance he was currently at. "I know not of this idiot-ness, foolish earth creature!" he declared... loudly. Loud enough that people stopped and glanced in his direction as well. "And I have no desire to learn about that either," with that Zim turned back around again and continued to walk off. 

Dib seethed. Who would have thought that just Zim's voice could make him so upset? But he was. Just the fact that he KNEW Zim had the ability to be nicer than that, or at least smarter than that. People were stupid and tended not to see things in front of their own eyes, but reverting back to the stupid Invader act was just dumb. _'When did I start caring whether he exposes himself or not?' _The stray thought ran though his head. 

He didn't know. All he knew was people were staring and he was VERY close to shaking with rage. "You know what? FUCK you Zim!" He finally yelled out loud. Loud enough that the several kids around him that hadn't already stopped and stared did so. At that particular moment Dib didn't really care. 

"I'd rather-- not," Zim was almost out of ear shot but his words drifted back to him, said in a sing song voice.

Dib shook as he watched Zim's disappearing back. Fuck him. _Fuck_ him. The alien knew EXACTLY what he was doing. If he knew the meaning of the word "fuck" he knew about Christmas and the rest of it. Obviously. Which meant he was just doing this to piss him off. 

Well it was working. Dib wanted to yell... scream more... and right now he wanted more than ever before to run after the alien and beat the shit out of him. He didn't even know at what point he had lost control so badly, but he was going to do something he would seriously regret if he didn't do something to calm down RIGHT now... 

"That went... well..." Gaz observed drily. Her brother, who was currently red faced and looked like he was going to kill, looked up and gave her a surprised look. Gaz gave him a half shrug back and walked down the steps to join him. 

That was all Dib needed. He drew in a shaky breath... one, then another one and deliberately stuck balled fists into his pockets. 

Gaz accepted that silently. The brother sister pair began to walk towards home, in the opposite direction that Zim had went in. 

"Not that I care or anything," Gaz said after a long moment of silence. She turned and raised one eyebrow at her brother. "But he IS an alien you know." 

_'What's _**_that_**_ supposed to mean? Of COURSE I know he's an alien, I haven't been following him for the last four years for no reason!' _Dib stopped his words before they could spew from his mouth in full rant form. He understood what his sister was trying to imply. Don't get his expectations too high. Zim _was_ an alien. An incredibly self centered one who always thought about himself and no one else, and, as far as Dib knew, had no conscience, nothing that would define him as 'human'. Getting mad at him was like getting mad at a small child. It was pointless and would only add to the alien's delight. Grr... why did he keep forgetting recently? Dib drew in a deep breath. And another. "Yes I KNOW," He grumbled finally. 

Gaz looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Do you?" She asked.

Dib glanced down at her. Gaz met his gaze levelly and Dib found he was the one that had to look away first. 

"Yes," He mumbled. He stuck his hands deeper in his pockets and hunched forwards as he trudged through the deep snow. 

"Good," Gaz said. That was the end of the conversation. She pulled out her Game Slave X out of her pocket and began to play it, shutting her brother and everything else around her out as she usually did. 

~~~

The days up until Christmas Eve crawled by just as slowly as school it's self. The only reason why Dib preferred the solitude of the Christmas season to school was that he was thankfully left alone for the extent of it. There was no Ms. England and her questions. There were no other students bugging him about being a nerd, geek, freak, whatever, whenever he spoke of things their lack of interest and intelligence couldn't completely comprehend. There was no Zim, which was a relief beyond words. There were no stares.

There was only him and Gaz. And his computer. And his sister's games. The professor wasn't even there either... he was still on the military base, doing whatever top-secret thing they had him doing.

The blow came on the morning of Christmas Eve. He woke up and walked down the stairs just in time to hear Gaz say "Why not?" at the holographic projection of their Dad in the kitchen. 

Dib looked at her, then at the holodad. 

"Oh hello there Son!" The projection declared. "How are you?" 

"Ur... good," Dib replied a bit fuzzily, rubbing the side of his head. He had just woken up...

"Dad!" Gaz said quickly, distracting their father back to her. 

"Oh that's right!" The professor said. "Son, Daughter, I will not be able to make it back this Christmas." He said. He held up a hand to stifle the question of why that was just about to make it's way out of Dib's mouth. "Work I'm afraid is holding me up here... I cannot return. However!" He raised his hand and pointed upwards in a triumphant gesture. "If you look in the living room you will see that there are Christmas gifts for the both of you..." 

Both of them turned and padded into the living room. Sure enough a fully decorated and lit tree sat in the corner of the room, with two large wrapped presents beneath it. Dib blinked. That hadn't been there the night before. Not that he hadn't expected a Christmas tree at some point during the holiday season, but he didn't always get one. In fact some years they forgot Christmas all together, choosing to all sit around and watch the news on Christmas Eve while sipping eggnog. That was what Christmas meant to their family. 

Dib turned back. He caught the stormy look on his sister's face out of the corner of his eye before he looked up at his dad's projection again. 

"I'm sure you two kids will be all right," The professor said with a laugh in his voice. 

Gaz glared. "When are you coming HOME dad," She asked.

The professor chuckled. "Just as soon my work here is done dear," He said. "Merry Christmas to you both!" And with that the holo vid shut off again. 

For a long moment Dib looked at it. Then he turned and looked at his sister. 

Amazingly enough, where Gaz had had an angry look a moment before, she now had an impassive look on her face. 

"Gaz?" Dib asked. 

"Don't _bug_ me," Gaz replied grumpily. With that she turned and stomped out of the room. 

Dib stared after her in the direction that she left in, then his shoulders slumped forwards suddenly. "I'm... going back to bed," He announced at nobody. With that he turned around and did so.

He woke up again sometime in the early afternoon. After making one last futile attempt at hacking into the military's classified files to find out what his dad was doing (when did the security get so good anyway?) he wandered downstairs to make himself something for dinner. He vaguely noticed that his sister was curled up in a chair in the living room, her head bent over her sketch pad... drawing something. He shrugged and walked into the kitchen.

It was a little while later when he wandered back into the living room with a sandwich in hand. He stopped briefly at the tree and peered down at the gifts. 

Sure enough, like ever year, the one to Gaz was labeled from "Professor Membrane! and Dib" and his was labeled from "Professor Membrane! and Gaz". It saved on his apathetic sister from actually having to shop for presents for the two to be pooled into one. It was fine by him as well... he had no idea what to get the girl either. She always got what she wanted the moment she wanted it anyway, whether it was a new book or her GS X the moment it came out. 

Dib looked up from the presents again and glanced at his sister. She still sat on the chair, hunched over her sketch pad, fall of her purple hair obscuring part of her face. He couldn't see what she was drawing, but he guessed from her posture she didn't want him to see what she was doing. He looked at the blank black holo vid screen. 

_'Damn this Christmas is going to suck,'_ He thought to himself miserably. He made his way across the living room to the window. He drew the blind aside and peered out of it. Silently he took in the rapidly darkening street, and the array of Christmas lights that decorated about every second house. Every house seemed to have their windows lit as well, indicating that they at least had people in them_. 'Their Christmas' will be with family,_' Dib continued to think moodily. 

"What could possibly be important enough to keep Dad away at Christmas anyway?" He burst out suddenly. "I mean yeah sure, he's never home ANYway, most of the time, but Christmas?! The whole entire COUNTRY has a day off at Christmas--"

"I don't care," Gaz's bored voice drifted at him from the chair. 

Dib turned part way and looked at her for a moment. She hadn't changed any, still hunched over her sketch pad with pencil clenched in hand. He turned back to the window. "I mean this just sucks! Couldn't he had at least TRIED to take time off?"

Now Gaz looked up. "Why are you asking me?" She asked. 

Dib wasn't done yet. "Every body else has a nice happy family, or at least a parent or SOMEone that cares SOMEwhat for them... but here we are... we're nothing but 'the Professor's roommates'. I mean COME ON! Why couldn't he--" 

"No. One. Cares. Dib!" Gaz finally snapped at him out of frustration and returned her attention to her drawing.

Dib froze. He turned away from the window and stared at her for a long moment. When she didn't look up from the picture she was still hunched over drawing, he squared his shoulders. Turning he walked out of the living room and took the stairs up to his room two at a time. 

He felt bitterly disappointed as he flopped down on his bed in the semi-darkness of his room. For a long time he just lay there, staring at the far wall, many different ugly thoughts going through his head at once. 

Gaz was right, he realized slowly. No one cared. 

Gaz didn't care. His dad certainly didn't care.

And then the ugliest thought of all came to him like a dark insidious whisper. _'Have you ever considered killing yourself?' _It asked. 

"No." Dib replied out loud, rather adamantly. That was one thing he would never do.

_'No?'_ the voice asked. _'Why not?'_

"Because." 

_'Come on Dib, you have to give me more than that. ... No one likes you. Everything you do is point*less* and worth*less*. The counselor at school thinks you should be committed to a mental institute... don't argue with me, you know she does. Your sister hates you. Your dad couldn't care less if you live or die and thinks you're crazy as well. You've had sex. Once. With an alien, who hates you just as much if not _**_more_**_ than anyone else in the world...' _

Dib squeezed his eyes shut and pressed the heels of his hands to his temples, knocking his glasses as he did so. They teetered from his face and fell to the blankets below. Dib ignored them, intent on exorcising his inner demons. "Go away," He whispered out loud. "Go AWAY..." 

_'Yup. You should probably just kill yourself. It would save everyone a lot of trouble...'_

Dib said nothing. 

_'There are razors in the bathroom. You could try slitting your wrists...'_

"No." Dib replied stubbornly. "Everyone at school does that." ... At least if the hallway gossip was to believed. And he always did think himself to be somewhat above his fellow students. _'I'm better than them...'_

_'Oh REALLY?'_ The voice in his head seemed to chuckle_. 'Too bad... you might actually...' _The voice dropped into a silken whisper._ '*Like* it...'_

"Shut up," Dib replied automatically. 

_'Fine then. Let's see...' _The voice continued cheerfully_. 'Your family hates you... so does Zim, who by the way, was your _**_proof_**_ and now you won't even try to catch him. Real smart... now you have nothing to live for. And you_**_ actually _**_think you're better than the people at your school? Really Dib?' _

Dib squeezed his eyes shut again. "Shut UP..." He felt tears well up in his eyes and bit his lip, hard, forcing them back. He would not cry. He wouldn't. _'You're *not* going to get me.' _He thought angrily. _'So I'm smarter than them... I'll find something to live for. I'm smart. I don't NEED Zim's proof.'_

_'Ha! Haha! So you don't need Zim. Great big deal. Now what are you going to do? Capture Big Foot? Who are you going to tell when you do?' _

"So I won't do that. I'll find something. I'm smart." Dib repeated though clenched teeth. 

_'Don't you see Dib? No one CARES. How long are you going to keep this up Dib?' _The mind voice began to twist into something with a familiar mocking lit. _'Really...' _It laughed._ 'Stupid _**_foolish _**_earth creature...' _

Dib's eyes flew wide with shock. "Shut up! Shut up, SHUT UP!" He shouted loudly, pounding the sides of his head with the heels of his hands. "Get out of my head!" The voice in his mind laughed as he grabbed his glasses and flung himself off of his bed in one smooth motion. He was out of his bedroom door an instant later. 

A moment or so later found him down the stairs and at the front door. Gaz was no where to be seen. With a violent tear he had removed his jacket from the closet and shrugged it on, stuffing his glasses into his pocket as he did so.

"I'm going out," He shouted into the house. With that he was out of there, the front door falling closed behind him with a slam. 

He didn't even know where he was going as he ran blindly down the darkened streets of the city. He didn't really care either... he couldn't see it. All he knew was multicolored blurs of Christmas lights and decorations as he made his way past now darkened houses. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't care... all he knew was that the voice in his head was blessedly silent as he ran. All he could hear was his harsh panting and the blood pounding in his ears... 

And then he turned a corner and saw it. Green unearthly light shone down on him from the house at the end of the bay. 

Zim's house. 

Dib stopped. For a long moment he stood there, half bent over and panting, with his hands on his knees to hold him up and wondered as he stared at the ground what he would do. He stood there so long in fact, that the sweat that was rolling down his face began to freeze and he shivered ever so slightly in the wind. He straightened. After a moment he took his glasses back out of his pocket and replaced them on his face. Slowly he began to trudge towards the house. 

He reached it. And stared. The gnomes... which he had been so used to still sat in the front yard of Zim's house. However in the recent snow fall someone had decided to pack snow about them to make them look like little snow men. Their red eyes stared almost balefully out from the packed snow as if to accuse him. Pizza slices were packed into the snow as well to form lopsided mouths. A slow smile started to twitch at Dib's lips. It slowly turned into a grin. 

Haha, good ol' Gir. That crazy robot. He felt better already.

He looked up at the house one last time, then slowly turned around, intent on walking home again. He made it about two steps when the sound of a door being opened behind him called his attention back to the house. 

Zim stood in the doorway. He was looking at the human warily.

Dib blinked, surprised, then turned back again and, when it appeared that Zim wasn't going to do anything or say anything, walked back to the fence, a half questioning look on his face. 

Zim raised an eyebrow as he approached. "What do YOU want?" He asked. He stepped down from the front door as well and made his way about half way down his sidewalk. He pointed suddenly, his eyes flying wide. "You aren't here to try to **_capture_** me again are you?" Suddenly he lowered himself into a crouch and looked like he was just about to sprout his spider legs. 

Dib blinked again, then smiled slightly and shook his head. "No." He replied. He made a hand motion in the vague direction of the snowmen lawn gnomes. "I'd be pretty stupid to try, don't you think?" He questioned dryly. 

Zim relaxed... barely. He still eyed the human suspiciously. "Well then... what ARE you here for?" He asked.

"I was just out for a... er, walk." Dib shrugged and turned away again. "I'm going home now..." 

There was silence for a moment. And then Zim said something that stopped him in his tracks. 

"You've changed Dib human."

Dib stopped. Slowly he turned back around and even more slowly he reapproached the Invader's house. Zim watched from where he was standing as he neared, his face holding neither hostility on it nor acceptance. 

_'And you haven't changed at all,'_ Dib thought back. _'Except you did... huh.' _He watched the alien as well. He suddenly realized with stunning clarity why Zim had been acting up the last couple weeks at school. It was because he _HAD_ changed. Dib had too... he had outright refused to play with Zim any longer... refused to chase him and try to capture him or do whatever. He had left Zim with nothing to _do_. Well that would explain the behavior. Zim probably figured that if provoking him into friendly fights wouldn't work any more, than he'd provoke him into less than friendly ones. It was one way to get what he wanted out of the human... 

"Humans change Zim," Dib explained as he reached the fence again. He eyed the alien. "I'm not a little kid anymore. Well I mean I _am_, but I'm not a little _little_ kid anymore. I grew up." 

Zim cocked his head to the side in an almost curious gesture. "I don't like it," He said stubbornly. 

Dib held his hands wide and shrugged. "I can't do anything about it Zim. Ut!" He held up a finger to silence a protest that it looked like Zim was about to utter. "And I don't want to either," He amended. "I like me the way I am," He silenced the voice in his head that seemed to suddenly want to laugh at him and call him a hypocrite. 

Zim was giving him the evil eye. "I don't like you," He said matter of factly. 

Dib shrugged. "That's really not my choice now is it?" He almost laughed out loud at the confused look on Zim's face and prided himself in the mature way he was handling this conversation. For someone who had been screaming at himself just a little while previous, he felt he was doing very well indeed. 

"Tell you what." Dib said, leaning up against the side of Zim's picket fence with amusement dancing in his eyes. "I personally have been having a crappy day, but it _is_ Christmas Eve. How about we try to have a conversation without screaming and yelling at each other for once?"

He could tell by the continued confused look on Zim's face that the Irken was having difficulty understanding him. He'd lost him somewhere... 

"Here I'll go first." Dib tilted his head backwards, taking in the stars that had decided to come out between his house and here and watched as the puffs of transparent white that came from his mouth dissipated into the night air. After a moment he looked back down at the Irken. "How was your day?" He asked. Simple enough.

The Irken blinked. For a long moment Dib though he wasn't going to reply-- then he did. "Entirely uneventful and full of colorful-ish substances!" Zim declared. "GIR makes me watch that foolish television thing with him all the TIME now that there is no more earth school." He made a violent gesture behind himself at the house. "I am beginning to intensely hate that jolly man and his trolley pulled by antlered cows..." 

Dib actually laughed out loud. Zim's head whipped back around to peer at him out of squinted eyes. "Um, Santa Claus, sled and reindeer," Dib corrected. 

"Yes, those too," The Irken agreed. 

Dib was about to open his mouth to ask something else when the door of the house crashed open. A green blur erupted out of it, shot forwards and landed at Zim's feet. "HI Dib!" He declared in his hi pitched robot voice, waving enthusiastically at the boy. Then he turned his attention upwards to peer at Zim. "Masta! The show with the Christmas Dookie is on!" He said excitedly.

Zim looked bored. "Is it?" He replied. 

"Yes!" Gir squealed something unintelligible and launched himself at his master's leg. Dib chuckled softly at the look of instant dislike on Zim's face as the alien attempted to pry him off. He knew that feeling all too well. 

"GIR!" Zim shouted. "Release your master immediately!" 

"You come watch it TOO~!" Gir replied happily.

"FINE Gir," Zim replied. "But only if you let go of me RIGHT--" 

Gir had already let Zim go and had zipped back into the house with a "yaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!". The door slammed shut on Zim's "Now."

The alien winced slightly and glowered at nothing at particular for a moment, muttering something under his breath about fixing circuits before he returned his attention to Dib. 

"I'm glad you find this so amusing, earth stink," He said stiffly. 

Dib sobered up immediately and cleared his throat. "Sorry," he apologized. 

Zim eyed him. "I must go," he said in way of reply. "Is our conversation type thing..." he wiggled his fingers. "Done?" 

Dib shrugged and put his hands back in his pockets. "I suppose," He said, still smiling slightly. 

Zim looked relieved. "Oh good," He said. He turned away. 

Dib did as well, then hesitated and turned back again. It couldn't possibly go as badly as the last time he said it... "Merry Christmas Zim." 

Zim turned back again and squinted at him silently. 

"It's proper to say 'Merry Christmas' back," Dib encouraged gently. "Or at least 'Seasons Greetings' or something like that." He added. 

An eyebrow raised. Zim's eyes darted about and he muttered something Dib couldn't quite make out... something to the effect of 'foolish earth traditions'. After a moment the Irken looked back at him. "Merry Christmas Dib human," He said, politely enough.

Dib grinned. "Very good," He said. "See ya!" With that he turned away with a little wave and began to walk off towards home. 

After a moment of watching the human walk away, Zim turned and walked back into his base, a pensive frown on his pale green face. 

~~~

It was late and the house was silent when he got back to it. The front door was locked as well... Gaz had probably already gone to bed. Dib had to go around to back and open the door with the experimental handprint unlock thing the professor had installed some months previous. Lucky for him it opened... after zapping him a couple of times. 

He climbed the darkened stairs up to his room. He opened the door and closed it behind himself again with a small sigh. Something crunched slightly under his foot. 

Dib flicked on the bedroom light. Leaning down he picked up the piece of paper he had stepped on. He stared. It was a picture, drawn on thick art paper no less. He took it over to his desk and carefully smoothed it out. It was amazingly well done. It had an alien drawn on it... one that looked a lot like Zim. The alien's head was tilted up and he was staring at a massive array of stars all about him, a forlorn look on his face. Almost as if he wanted to be up in the stars as well. Behind him was the backdrop of their city. 

A slow smile began to spread across Dib's face. He flipped the picture over and looked at the back. Sure enough, in his sister's messy writing scrawled the words "Merry Christmas, Dib. From Gaz." 

He hadn't even known she could draw that well. She never liked to show him her doodles, especially not recently. The picture was several times better than what HE could ever do. After a moment more of looking at the picture in amazement he picked it up and exited his room with it. He walked down the hall to his sister's room and after a moment of hesitation knocked on the door. 

"What?" Gaz grumped at him from inside the room.

Dib pushed open the door. Gaz lay sprawled on her bed, playing her game slave.

"Did you draw this?" Dib asked, holding up the picture. 

"Gee..." Gaz replied without even really looking up. "What do you think?" She said sarcastically.

Dib grinned and shook his head slightly. "I think it's awesome," He said finally, truthfully. "You're really good you know that?" 

Gaz scowled for a moment, then switched off her GS X and laid it next to her on the bed. "Thanks," She muttered at him. 

Dib smiled. "No problem. Just thought you'd like to know that." He turned to go again, then turned back again. Gaz looked up at him with her customary scowl, but for some reason it didn't look as harsh as it usually did. "And Gaz?" He added. 

One of Gaz's eyebrows quirked upwards ever so slightly. 

"Merry Christmas," Dib said. 

Gaz suddenly found something hugely fascinating with toying with a piece of one of the blankets beneath her hand. After a moment she looked back up at him and managed a half smile. "Yeah." She said. "Merry Christmas to you too." 

~~~


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes**: Borath, you get a cookie. Very good. I'm impressed. Oo B... you too.  
I know this is a spoiler, but I have to put it here. Warnings for extreme blood squick in this chapter...  
Thanks again to my pre-readers for this part -- Octoberbride and Jrandomlurker.

**Year 1, Month 3**

Despite the fact that, beyond about two hours on New Years, the children did not see their father, the rest of the holiday season went well enough for Dib. He and Gaz passed it in relative peacewhich meant that they ignored each other the entire time. That was okay with Dib. It was a good thing to ignore his sister and be ignored back. It meant they weren't fighting and things weren't tense and hostile.

The beginning of January heralded the start of a new year and the start of the second semester at school. Dib was a little nervous about this, partly because he knew he would see Zim again. He half wondered if he had imagined that conversation they had held in front of the alien's house back on Christmas Eve. Not only that he wasn't sure if the alien would switch back to the way he was acting before the Christmas break, which would make life slightly-- _unpleasant_ if he did.

Surprisingly enough, Zim didn't. Even more surprising was the fact that Zim came to school dressed in HUMAN clothes on the first day of classes. He was wearing his boots still, but they disappeared beneath a normal pair of black jeans, which in turn disappeared beneath a long loose baggy red shirt. The entire outfit was covered by a black jean jacket, which, like the shirt, looked like it was about two sizes too big for the tiny alien.

The clothes caused quite a stir actually. Dib didn't know whether it was because Zim looked strange with a hole cut through the back of his shirt and jean jacket so that his pak would stick out or what, but the kids in their class decided to start picking on him. Funny how Zim had worn the same outfit for four YEARS and no one so much as breathed a word, and the moment he showed up wearing something different all of the rest of the students in the class took up the opportunity to rile him for it. The weird kid was actually wearing something different for once. Zim for his credit, ignored them.

Needless to say, Dib's interest was piqued.

"When did **you** start wearing **human** clothes?" Dib asked as he plopped down at the cafeteria table across from Zim that day at lunch.

Zim glared at him for a moment, before replying. "Since I FELT like it! Zim needs no reason!" He declared, shaking his fist at the human for emphasis.

Dib raised one of his eyebrows at the alien. "Oookay..."

The conversation set the tone for the rest of the conversations they had that month. Zim did not fully revert back to his former Invader act, much to Dib's relief. He didn't, however, make a point of being the most social of people. Whenever the human did try to talk to him, he would either rant at him loudly or yawn and say that he had much better things to do than talk to a lowly worm.

Dib often wondered what these "better things" were, but Zim never told him.

It was somewhere near the end of January when it happened. Zim, suddenly, in the middle of a lecture thrust his hand in the air and declared that he needed to go to the washroom REAAALLLY bad. That in it's self wasn't odd, but the emphasis Zim put on 'really' led Dib to think that the alien was up to something. He would have excused himself from class and followed him but his teacher was one of those that believed that only one student should be away from the class at the time... no exceptions. He had even tried to raise his hand and tell the teacher that he needed to go to the nurse's office right now, or else he would puke everywhere and she had just handed him the garbage can.

Stupid teacher. He picked up sulking for the rest of the class. He consoled himself by thinking that he was probably just imagining things anyway and being extra suspicious. Zim had stopped doing things to take over the world and stuff years ago...

He wasn't doing so well. He had known that from the moment the first sharp pain had traveled through his relatively tiny body from that spot in his belly. He had nearly keeled over with the force of it. Biting back a cry of protest that would have instantly given him away he had instead told the human teacher person that he _really_ needed to go. That gave him the blessed permission he needed to escape from that horribly stifling class.

Now he was trying to make his way down the hallway without collapsing. He hadn't known that such a simple task could be so incredibly difficult! Every 30 seconds or so he would get a pain strong enough to cause him to curl in on himself. He found he was leaning up against the wall of the hallway with his head nearly to his knees. By Irk, had he never felt such horrible pain? His hands carried down to clench beneath the source of it, on his lower abdomen. Was it time already? If so why did it hurt so much? Was birthing smeets _supposed_ to hurt this much? And furthermore why wasn't his _pak _doing anything to diffuse the pain?

It was while he was in that position, half doubled over when he heard rather than saw the sound of someone coming. He winced and attempted to straighten. Even so he couldn't seem to muster up the effort to raise his head more than part way... with brought his gaze to approximately waist level.

After a moment a pair of legs dressed in black boots appeared in his line of vision. Zim watched them out of half-squinted shut eyes. When they stopped in front of him the Irken started and strained to look up at the creature in front of him. Finally, gasping softly, he managed to straighten all the way, still with one of his hands against the wall to support himself.

It was Gaz. Zim's mouth fell open. "What are YOU doing here?" He demanded to know of the human girl.

Gaz gave him an unbelieving look from over the top of her book. "I could ask the same of you." She replied in her grating monotone. Actually she had just skipped out of class again, determined to go home instead of taking in her last class. But that was beside the point. She closed her book and raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with you?" She asked.

Zim snorted. "Nothing that would concern a simple human like you!" He declared.

"You look sick," Gaz pointed out in reply.

"You speak craziness!" The alien forced himself away from the wall, then pushed Gaz away from himself with his other hand. Exuding confidence he didn't have he walked down the hall and away from her, muttering as he went. "Zim is _never_ ill..."

Gaz watched him go out of suspicious eyes. After a moment she gave up. She shrugged apathetically and turned to go, when she noticed something. She frowned and touched the sleeve of her jacket where Zim had touched it to push her away. It was wet. She pulled her hand away again and looked at her fingers. They were green.

He was bleeding.

The alien stumbled slightly once he got inside of his house, then fell back against the inside wall beside the door with a soft moan. He reached up and took off his human disguise with one hand, allowing the hairpiece and contacts to fall to the floor. He couldn't believe that he had made it. His hand carried down to clench his belly. Another shot of pain flowed through him and his knees trembled.

To make matters worse, Gir was in the living room. "Hi master!" He called out in his high-pitched voice. Zim's antennae sagged backwards in bitter dislike.

Gir looked down. "You're bleeding," He said, taking in the substance that was slowly dripping from the bottom of the Irken's shirt and pants to the floor.

"Am I?" The Irken replied dully. He looked down. "What do you know? I suppose I am." He suddenly thought about how horrible that was... he could have very well have left a trail of green blood all the way home, leading any fool human to his base, but at this particular moment he was in too much agony to care very much.

"GIR!" He snapped suddenly as he began to shuffle across the living room in a particular half crouch, still clenching his belly. "I am going below to try to... _extract_ these horrible creatures full of hideous pain and repair myself! I want you to watch the base. That means NO letting humans in, do you understand?"

"Not even the big head boy?" The robot chirped once he had almost reached the garbage can entrance to his base.

It didn't take Zim long to figure out that Gir meant Dib. In fact it took a little less than a second as Gir tended to call Dib "the bigheaded boy" a lot. Still. "No!" Zim snapped, suddenly furious. "Not Dib! Not anyone, do you understand me? NO ONE!"

Gir blinked at him from the couch, an oblivious look on his face. After a moment he saluted, his eyes glowing momentarily red. "Yes my master!" He declared. His eyes went blue again and he grinned, his silly pink tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. "Okie Dokie!"

Good. With that Zim crawled into his lift and willed more than commanded it to take him downwards...

She knew what was wrong with Zim. She hadn't ever really much cared about anything before now. But she did know one thing... she had noticed the way the alien had been dressing over the last month... and knew exactly why he had been doing so. Every once and a while her sharp eyes would pick up the very slight bulge underneath Zim's loose shirt. She didn't know WHY her brother hadn't seen it, he used to observe Zim more closely than anything else ever. The only reason she could think of was he lost interest in the alien after their shared "incident". Which didn't really fit into her brother's personality, but did fit the fact that he was a guy. She made a face. That's it, she decided finally. She was going to tell him the moment he walked in the door from school...

That didn't take very long. Gaz glared out the window as her brother made his way up the sidewalk. She let him walk in the door, but that was about as far as she would let him go.

"What did you do to Zim?" She demanded to know the moment he began to shrug off his winter jacket.

"I--" Dib paused, confused. "Nothing." He tried slowly. "Why?" He asked.

Gaz gritted her teeth. She might not be able to keep her secret a secret any longer if she told him.

She figured the end result, whatever that might be, would be worth the loss. She still wanted Zim alive... he amused her. And his technology could repair her video games-- beyond that, gave them endless power. They had a nice little parasite-like relationship-- I let you live... but only if you let me use your stuff.

"He's hurt." She said bluntly.

Now Dib looked really lost. "I -- he is?" He asked.

Gaz nodded. "He was bleeding. Badly." She made a hand motion at her lower abdomen. "From down here." She said.

Dib's eyes darted downwards then returned to Gaz's face abruptly. "What?" He asked unintelligently.

Gaz rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. It looked like she was going to have to spoon feed it to him... "He's pregnant. Or was..." She continued.

Dib looked about as white as a sheet now. He stared at her and abruptly fumbled the coat hanger he had extracted from the closet. He didn't even seem to hear it as it skittered across the linoleum. "He is?" He squeaked.

_'Yes my stupid big brother, he is. Where HAVE you been?' _Gaz merely raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know?" She asked, the sarcasm thick in her voice. "I thought you of all people would..."

Dib started visibly. "I-- I mean yes I did-- but he said- I..." He stopped fumbling for words and stared at her, his jaw falling open as his sister's words processed. He shut it again and gulped visibly. "How long have you known?" He whispered. He suddenly remembered the picture Gaz had given him at Christmas. "Oh god... you've known since before Christmas, haven't you?"

If it were any other circumstance, Gaz would have enjoyed the look of raw terror on her brother's face. Now, however, it was just irritating. "Does it really matter?" She yelled at him suddenly. "I don't CARE if you sleep with aliens in your free time! I DO, however, care if Zim dies!" She paused, catching the fleeting 'huh?' look on her brother's face. "And you're standing here looking like an idiot with your mouth hanging open like that! You make me sick!" She added for good measure.

Dib did a double take, shut his mouth and stared. Suddenly he dropped his jacket and dodged towards the stairs leading to the basement. As he went he shouted back at her... "Why do you care anyway?"

Gaz didn't bother answering. Instead she casually followed her brother down the basement stairs. He was easy enough to find, rummaging around his basement lab, muttering to himself as he picked up items and tossed them into his bag... "Bandages? Yes might need that... sedative? Probably ... I hope it isn't too bad... it's too early... er... maybe I should just let him... needles? No probably not..."

She folded her arms across her chest and waited. It didn't take long. Dib finally finished putting all of his stuff he needed into his bag and hoisted it onto his shoulders. He started towards the door the stopped abruptly and stared at her when he saw her. Then his eyes narrowed, a bit suspiciously.

"What are you up to?" He asked.

Gaz raised an eyebrow at him. "Up to?" She repeated.

"Yes Gaz," Dib replied. Suddenly he lowered his bag again and rounded on her, his eyes flashing. "You're just setting a trap aren't you? You want me to go over to Zim's again..." He turned away suddenly, thrusting his finger into the air violently as he spoke. "There is no WAY I'm going over there again," He declared. "Not with what happened last time..."

"What?" Gaz casually inspected her nails. "Last time you were over there you talked about Christmas, didn't you?"

Dib opened his mouth, then shut it again abruptly. "Okay, the time before last then," He said, flushing bright red. He turned away again. "I'm not going over there." He repeated swiftly.

Gaz shrugged. "What happened to taking responsibility for your actions?" She said snidely. "I suppose you don't care if the babies died, huh? Because, Dib, he WAS pregnant..."

"You're lying!" Dib returned, sounding very frustrated. "And anyway, Zim said there would BE no babies..."

Gaz rolled her eyes. Stupid humans... sometimes she was ashamed to even be one. So hopelessly naive... "So Zim had sex..." Her lip curled but she pressed on. "With you out of desperation and lack of his own species around and you can't possibly believe that babies would NOT be the result?" she completed dourly. _'Reality check Dib... aliens from other planets are probably not going to want to sleep with you unless it's REALLY important...'_

"You're lying." Dib repeated in a stubborn tone of voice.

Gaz glared. "You're delusional," She returned abruptly.

Dib stared at her, long and hard. Then, silently, he leaned down and picked up his pack again, shouldering it. Giving her one more cryptic look he pushed past her and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

It was surprisingly easy for Dib to get into the base... again. This time he knocked, like a normal person would, on the front door. Gir, in his doggie suit, answered it.

"Yeeesss?" The dog questioned slowly, grinning up at him.

"Is Zim there?" Dib tried to step by him.

Gir's eyes flashed red at that. Suddenly the top of his doggie head popped open and a massive array of weapons came out and pointed at him. "You may not pass! No human may enter!" He declared.

Dib took an involuntary step back. "Gir... Zim is hurt," The human boy said after a moment with a little sigh. Gaz was right... at least on the injury side of things. He had seen the scattered trail of green blood leading from all the way down the block to here. _'It's partly my fault...'_ "I need to see if there is anything I can do..."

Gir blinked up at him stupidly.

"I'm not really a human you know," Dib added suddenly.

Gir cocked his head to the side the red fading from his eyes. The machinery retreated back into his head. "I didn't know!" The robot said, in an amazed tone of voice.

Dib nodded hopefully. "I'm not..." He was lying, but that was okay. What mattered was convincing Gir to let him inside. He'd really rather not stun him again, which would be his second plan of attack. For some reason it felt intrusive for him to stun Zim's robot when the alien was as hurt as much as his blood trail seemed to indicate. "So can I come in?" He tried again after a moment.

"Oh yeah... I guess so!" The little robot said cheerfully. With that he turned away from the door and trotted inside.

Dib let out a little sigh of relief and followed him.

Moments later he was on an elevator, shooting, once again, deep into the bowls of the earth. Finally it stopped and coughed him out in a room that seemed very cluttered, full of computers, piping, tubes and gizmos.

Huh.

Shrugging off his backpack, Dib extracted his laptop from it. Moments later he had interfaced with the house again and called up Zim's locale. He was in the same room as Dib was actually, a little bit off to his left and past some ominous looking machinery...

He found quickly that he hadn't actually needed his laptop to tell him where to go... all he had to do was follow the trails of irken blood that glinted dully in the low gleam of light in the room. Dib noticed the quantity grew as he tread forwards, sidestepping pools of the stuff as he emerged into the main part of the room.

His breath caught in his throat momentarily.

The pools of blood stopped here and turned into one gigantic body sized smear that went in a rough line across the room. Dib's eyes followed it to its source and found him. Zim sat huddled in the far corner of the room, half curled in on himself, his head on his knees. Around him small pools of blood sat and about his body the walls were decorated with green handprints, as if the Irken had been struggling. His clothes were removed and lay about him... or at least his jacket and his pants, leaving nothing but the tattered red shirt, which hid nothing. As Dib approached the Irken peered up at him blearily, blinked and muttered something under his breath, then returned his head to between his legs.

"Zim?" Dib questioned once he was close enough to crouch down beside the Irken. He went to reach out to him... hesitated and drew his hand back again. "Zim." He tried again, gently.

Finally the Irken looked up at him again. Half shut red alien eyes seemed to take a moment to focus. Then Zim managed a twisted smile that looked more like a grimace and shook his head ever so slightly. "Filthy earth creature..." The alien rasped at him. "You're too late..."

Dib dropped his bag and frowned, then reached out and grasped the alien by the shoulders, pushing him upright. For some reason the alien let out a little cry at that, his head lulling. "Too late for what Zim?" Dib asked calmly. He noticed that the alien's breathing, though almost silent, was very rapid.

The Irken smiled again, and pushed the word past the shallow panting. "Dead." He said. His hands carried down, grasping at his belly and his fingers curled at it. "Dead... all dead."

Dib's eyes flicked down at the Irken's hands, then looked back up to his face. For some reason that proclamation made an uncomfortable feeling squirm at his insides. The babies were dead then. He didn't know why, exactly, it bothered him... heck up until a couple hours ago he hadn't even been aware that there were any. "You mean the babies?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

Zim nodded rapidly. After a moment's silence he wrenched his shoulders out from under the human's hands and fell to the side instantly. "Whhhhyyyy are you heeeeerrrreeee?" He cried out, his voice a drawn out whine. "Did I not instruct Gir to keep ALL humans out of my base? That _horrible. ROBOT!_" His voice ended in an odd scream and he lay there on his side in a puddle of his own blood, panting.

Dib watched the alien with growing alarm. "... Zim?" He asked.

The Irken shut his eyes. "Go away," He muttered, reminded Dib acutely of another time he confronted the alien in relatively similar circumstances.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong Zim," Dib replied, a determined lit to his voice. He reached down and attempted to draw the alien back into a sitting position. Zim allowed him to do so reluctantly.

"The pain," The Irken muttered, once he was upright. His eyes slid away, looking everywhere but at the human. His hands clenched and unclenched compulsively at his belly. "The _pain_..."

Dib suddenly remembered the sedatives in his bag. "Do you want me to try to help you Zim?" he asked gently, fully expecting to be turned down by an egotistical rant or three.

Instead the Irken turned his head to look at him. Red eyes stared up at him balefully. After a moment Zim's eyes slid closed and he nodded ever so slightly.

That was... surprising. His one thought was that Zim must be in a terrible amount of pain to agree to let Dib try to help him. He wasn't about to let him down. It was the reason why he was here anyway... "Where does it hurt?" He asked swiftly. He reached down, covering the alien's clenching hands with his own. "Down here?"

"Where _else_ would it hurt?" Zim hissed at him through clenched teeth.

"Let go," Dib replied, gently tugging the alien's hands away from his belly. The alien let go reluctantly. Feeling very much like a doctor, Dib swiftly flipped up the alien's shirt, placing a warm palm on the alien's stomach. He could see as well as feel the alien's minute trembling beneath his hand, as well as see the lump that must have been where the babies had been residing. Except that the lump was still there, a particularly grotesque-like formation sticking out of Zim's stomach area.

"Are they still in there?" He asked the Irken as his other hand tugged the red shirt over the Irken's head and off. Zim glared at him as his head popped back into view. "I already passed several of them." He snapped, his hands returning to his belly.

More than one? "Where did they go?" Dib asked mildly as his hand probed lower.

"I _used_ the _disposal_ vacuum," the Irken was practically shouting now. "It is no concern of yours!"

Well it was a concern of his, but Dib wasn't about to argue. Instead he kept on feeling away at the Irken. Yes... there was definitely something there, he decided as he poked at the odd hard lump protruding out of the alien's belly. Not only that, Zim's modified sexual organs were damp and sticky with blood he noted, his nose wrinkling with mild disgust. He frowned as the Irken curled in on himself again, preventing the human from getting a closer look. He needed to get the alien vertical somehow, and NOT on the bloody floor.

Dib stood up again, purposefully. "Computer!" he ordered abruptly.

"What is it _this_ time?" The computer grumped at Dib.

A slight smile twitched at the corner of Dib's mouth. "Can you make a laboratory table bed type thing for me?" He asked.

"I _guess_..." The computer returned with a self-suffering sigh.

"Hey... _hey_!" Came the weak protest from the floor. "My computer shouldn't be taking orders from you! HEY!"

Dib looked down at the Irken with a raised eyebrow, then looked back up when a crash sounded from in front of him. Sure enough, where nothing had been a couple moments previous a thin narrow bed had appeared. It was decked out with everything Dib thought he could possibly need, including restraints and a breather and what looked like an atmosphere provider. There even appeared to be a larger restraint that looked like it could swing over the top of the bed. And there was a nice little pile of towels on the end of it... how convenient.

"Zim? Do you have some sort of X-ray device? So that I can see inside your-- insides?" Dib asked quickly as he bent down to pick the alien up.

"Don't touch me!" The alien snapped in reply, struggling to his feet himself. "Over there stink beast." He continued, waving a hand in the direction of a pile of electronic devices in the opposite corner of the room.

"Can you...?" Dib began.

"Yes!" The alien growled out. With that he pushed away from the wall and took a shaky step in the direction of the table.

Dib struggled and made for the pile of stuff in the corner. After some dismal searching he found something that resembled a square box with a pair of goggles over one end of it. He brought it up to his eyes and blinked though it, amazed as it showed him a picture of the wall in front of him, but with everything stripped away so that he could see PAST it... right into the dirt beyond and the layers of sedimentary rock. The picture was framed by Irken symbols. "Oh wow!" He breathed, excited. He was going to have to take this with him when he left...

"Can you get on the bed?" Dib called over his shoulder as he lowered the device. The alien had made it to the bed, but was now standing beside it... glaring at it. "Get on the bed Zim..." Dib said.

The alien shook. "You think you can just ORDER Zim around?" Zim yelled at him suddenly.

Dib whirled on him, an exasperated look on his face. "Get on the BED ZIM," He commanded. "Or else I _WON'T_ help you."

The alien met and held his glare for a whole second and a half. Finally he relented and looked away again. He turned about and grasped the edge of the bed... and stopped.

Dib bit back the yell before it could erupt from his mouth. It was a very good thing he did, because he would have missed the soft, very faint moan that issued from the alien's mouth.

"What is it?" Dib questioned, his voice a good deal softer than it had been a moment before.

Zim turned back and stared up at the human, his alien eyes wide and panicky. "It's my pak," He said, his voice strained and breathless. "It will not listen to me." He let go of the bed and stumbled forwards a step. "My spider legs," He said. "They will not emerge..." He took another step... then stumbled and nearly fell over.

It took Dib three steps to make it back across the room to the Irken. A fourth step he had grasped the alien underneath his armpits and the last he swung him up and placed him on the bed.

For a brief moment he had a struggle on his hands as the alien thrashed against him, his eyes wild.

"Shhh..." Dib soothed, holding the alien down firmly. Finally Zim calmed enough for Dib to let him go and he lay there silently. "Let's find out what's wrong with your belly first, and then we'll deal with your pak, okay?" The human said kindly. He watched as the Irken nodded, once sharply, then retreated back across the room to retrieve the X-ray machine and his backpack. The one he set beside the bed and the other he lifted to his eyes, tuning the knob on the side so that it focused on the Irken's belly. Finally, after batting Zim's blood stained hands away again he pressed it gently to the alien's abdomen.

A couple more minuscule twists of the machine's knob and a readjustment on where it was pointing and Dib could see what he was looking for. There! He drew in a sharp breath. Curled in a ball it looked nearly identical to pictures of human fetus' he had been forced to see in Biology class. "Cool..." He muttered, twisting the knob ever so slightly to get a cleaner view. He didn't know whether to be repulsed or amazed and instead chose a queasy version of the two. After a moment the machine in his hands flashed red over the image of the fetus and began to beep.

Dib looked up from the machine, confused.

"Give it to me," Zim demanded, holding out a hand.

Dib handed him the device. Zim took one look though the goggles and groaned, tossing the machine to the floor. Ignoring Dib's "Hey!" he curled up on himself again, shaking.

"What is it?" Dib asked him.

"The worm smeet is dead," Zim replied as he clenched at his belly. All of a sudden his entire body tensed up and he groaned. That did nothing but cause a new swell of blood to erupt from the bottom of his body. The Irken relaxed again after a moment, panting. "I must purge it from my system or..." He didn't finish his sentence. "Why won't my pak work!" He cried suddenly as his body clenched up again. His hands fisted above the lump in his belly again, pushing downwards but that didn't do anything besides cause a fresh rush of blood from his neither regions...

Dib's eyes widened. Suddenly he reached out, holding him down. "Stop it Zim!" He said. "You can't afford to loose anymore blood!" There was much to much of it, he thought wildly as he glanced around the room. He had to do something... and quickly...!

The moment he thought of it, was the moment he rejected it as utterly hopeless. He had thought of grabbing a scalpel from his bag and cutting the alien open... but he couldn't do it... not without potentially killing Zim. Firstly he knew almost NOTHING about alien physiology... especially not ever since Zim had been "modified"... and he just couldn't risk the _blood_...

It turned out that he didn't need to worry about it anyway. Another grunt, an odd rushing noise and a thump turned Dib's attention back to the laboratory table. Sure enough at the very bottom of it in a tiny pool of green blood there lay a wrinkled ball of flesh.

Dib's jaw fell open again and for some reason his stomach decided to turn over. A quick glance at Zim told him the alien was still alive... though he looked half-conscious, his arms limp at his sides. The lump on his belly had disappeared as well, rendering his front a seamless flat green expanse again.

Almost as if in a trance Dib walked forwards and reached down, carefully picking up the bloody object with his bare hands. It was incredibly small, scarcely two or three inches across in all directions and could fit into the palm of his hand easily. Fascinated, he poked it gently, unfurling the tiny body, amazed at the thin limp arms which weren't even as thick as a pencil and the disproportionately large head with it's relatively enormous eye sockets. He stroked the tiny head, noting the thread thin appendages there, which he guessed where un-formed antennae. "I-- wow..." He breathed as he explored, utterly enthralled. So this is what a half-human half irken would look like...

He was so absorbed that the scream took him by surprise. Letting out an unearthly howl, Zim launched himself at the human boy, batting the fetus out of his hands. It landed against the wall beside the bed and fell back onto it with a sickly wet squishy sound.

"Zim!" Dib cried out at the alien as he slumped against him. He grabbed the Irken to keep him upright and looked from him to the bed where the little body lay. "What's gotten into you?" He demanded to know.

"You will NOT experiment on it!" Zim seethed up at him.

Dib was completely lost. "Experiment?" He questioned. "Zim I was only _looking_ at it!"

The Irken shook in under his hands. "Computer!" He shouted. "Dispose of the body immediately!"

As soon as he was done speaking a tube snaked down from the ceiling and settled above the body. It made a sucking noise and an instant later the bed was bare, despite Dib's command to stop. The tube snaked back into the ceiling with a satisfied popping sound.

Dib stared down at the Irken like the little alien had two heads. "What's gotten into you?" He asked. He would never ever have expected in a million years for Zim to act that way. Last time he checked Zim enjoyed cutting things open just as much as he used to, and by the way Zim had described the rather clinical Irken birthing process, he wouldn't have expected anything near like the reaction the alien had just given him...

For some reason the alien was wavering on his feet now. He turned, and grasped Dib's jacket sleeve to hold himself upright. "I don't--" He began... then stopped, looking confused. Suddenly his grip tightened on Dib's sleeve and his whole entire body convulsed, his eyes falling shut and his mouth open in a silent scream.

"Zim!" Dib shouted, hanging onto the rigid body in his arms. "What is it? ZIM!"

The body relaxed again by degrees and slowly the blood red eyes reopened. "I -- don't--" The alien repeated, looking confused. "I--" There was a clunk from somewhere behind him.

Comprehension flooded the alien's eyes. And fear. "My pak." He said, turning suddenly and looking down.

Dib leaned over the shorter alien and looked down as well. Sure enough sitting on the floor behind Zim was a newly detached Irken pak.


	7. Chapter 7

Apologies to Jrandomlurker... this is not meant to be a rip off in anyway.   
Apologies for the lateness... for that I have no real excuse. 

~~~

Zim wasted no time in panicking. The Irken's eyes widened to a near impossible size... and then he began to scream. 

"NNNOOOOOOOO~!" He screeched out, so loudly that Dib winced. Zim wrenched himself from Dib's grasp and reached down, picking up his pak. With a wild look on his face he retreated across the room rapidly at a half scramble, sure to put distance between Dib and himself. As soon as he was sure that he was safe, or at least far enough away, he turned momentarily and placed the pak back on his back. 

It was no use. The pak fell back to the floor again with a clank. The Irken looked down at it, briefly, then looked back up at Dib. 

Dib got it. In a few swift strides he had crossed the room, picked up the pak in one hand and offered the alien his other. 

Zim would have none of it. "GIVE me my PAK!" He demanded, launching himself at Dib and grabbing for the device. "I need it to live!" The weight of the alien hitting his chest tumbled them both to the ground. They wrestled for a moment and when Dib wouldn't immediately relinquish the pak, then Zim went higher... for the human's neck. "Give it to MEEEE!" He demanded as his tiny clawlike hands dug into Dib's neck.

Dib struggled to buck the Irken back off of him, the hand that wasn't holding the pak desperately tugging at Zim's arms. "Zim!" He shouted back. "Zim I know! Let go!" He continued when the alien looked at him with fury in his eyes. "I just want to help you... let GO and I will..." 

Amazingly enough that seemed to get through to him. Zim froze, and the vice grip on his throat loosened a tiny bit. For a moment he stared at the human, his antennae twitching uncertainly. 

Dib forced himself to relax, assured that he wasn't going to be throttled. For now. "If I wanted to hurt you I would have done it a long time ago," he added gently. 

The Irken raised one non-existent eyebrow and narrowed the other. After a beat, he mumbled something under his breath to the effect of 'lying human scum' and slid off of Dib's chest. He left a hand curled in Dib's shirt as he stood on the floor, his antennae still twitching in an unsure way. The grip on his shirt tightened as the human knelt beside him. 

Dib readjusted his glasses and stared at the now exposed expanse of Zim's back. The place where the pak had resided for all of Zim's living life was very obvious... the skin was slightly depressed in a egg shape, and it was a shade lighter than the rest of Zim's skin. He ran his hands down to the twin ports in Zim's back and was amazed to see, as he watched, skin was already starting to grow over the holes. "Zim?" He questioned. "Is your skin supposed to grow that fast?" 

"Yes-NO!!" The Irken screeched. He let go of Dib's shirt and made a wild motion at the pak Dib held in his hands. "Replace it! Put it on my back NOW!" 

Dib followed his orders as quickly as he could. He grasped the pak in both hands and held it up to the alien's back, against the ports. The pak made a clicking sound and random lights came to life across the back panel. After a moment the pak made an odd whirring sound and the lights went dead again. 

Dib pulled it away again, confused. 

That's when it happened. With a click and another whirring sound the pak began to quake in his hands. The spider legs Dib had seen Zim use on many occasions shot out of it and the human screamed, dropping the pak as it came alive. He scrambled away across the dirty blood covered floor. The pak began to scuttle across the floor towards him as he did so, and at the same time thinner pincher like appendages joined the spider legs. 

Zim turned to watch, wide eyed, as one of the pinchers grabbed Dib's leg. The boy jerked his leg in a desperate bid to yank it away, it was no use. The pak scuttled the rest of the way to him and hovered above him, the other pincher shooting out to grasp the human boy by his neck. Dib cried out again and reached out to push it away, but his actions where ineffective. Not only that, the pincher that had his throat decided to apply pressure and for the second time in as many minutes he found himself in danger of being strangled. He let out a little noise that sounded very much like a whimper past the metal at his throat and stilled.

He was faintly aware of Zim's voice yelling at his pak, calling it all sorts of stupid names. Then he was aware of a clicking sound as the pak released its ports. Two long, thin extensions shot out of the Irken's pak as lowered it's self towards him. 

This had happened to him before. Even so he could help but to stare in horror as the appendages lodged into his chest. He hadn't actually _seen_ it happen before. Last time the pak had been clenched against his chest, leaving everything up to the imagination... 

He assumed from his knowledge of the previous attempt that the pak wouldn't hurt him. He was in for a surprise. The moment the prongs broke his skin he felt pain. It was terrible, shooting and left him nearly paralyzed from shock. After a moment he recovered enough to scream, and scream he did in a tiny thin frightened sound pushed past crushing metal. He forgot everything, his throat, Zim, EVERYTHING as he fought to free himself. 

Zim had scrambled across the room to his pile of stuff, wincing as the Dib-human began to make screamy noises. That agony was almost as bad as his tummy had been and he flattened his antennae again in despair. 

"Computer!" He barked when he had reached the other side of the room. "How much time has gone by since my pak disengaged?" He continued. "TELL ME!" 

"2 minutes, 43 seconds," The computer replied. 

Too long. He had a little more than 7 minutes left to repair himself and his pak, get the malfunctioning thing OFF of Dib and reintegrate with it. If he didn't... well there was no way he could survive. The pak contained his control brain. It contained his atmospheric conditioner, and it contained everything about him that defined him as Zim. The thought of loosing that... terrified him. Almost as much as the thought of dying, which was going to happen to him very quickly here if he did not do something... 

"Why must this happen to Zim?" He muttered under his breath as he began to root through the tools and objects at his feet. Seconds later he found something that would do. He stood again, shaking off a woozy feeling that told him that stupidity would be setting in soon, and ignored the tendril of thought that told him that then he'd be useless. He frowned as he stood again, raised the laser beam cutter of DOOM! in one of his hands and aimed it at his pak. 

The red beam sliced through the metal legs like they were tissue paper, and soon the pak found it's self unsupported. It drew back in alarm, and dropped to the ground. It released Dib as it did so. 

The human scrambled away quickly, sweating and panting. Zim afforded him a glance, and noticed that the human's cloth protection was torn at the neck, revealing a part of his upper chest. His throat was dripping acidy human blood from the shallow cuts the pinchers had made. He quickly decided that he did not care. He returned his attention to his pak. The object had half limped itself across the room and appeared to be cowering in a corner. 

"Keep an eye on my pak Human!" He ordered at Dib. Ignoring Dib's incredulous 'you've got to be kidding' look, he marched over to the back wall and removed a part of it. A touch of a button instantly brought forth a command station, one he sat at and quickly began to type figures into the panel. He was constantly aware of the failing time, and knew he had preciously little of it left before his mind completely went. 

"What are you doing?" Dib's curious voice drifted over to him. 

"Occupy your brain meats elsewhere!" Zim snapped back at him. "I have no time for your stupid, questiony... er, questions!!" He deliberately ignored Dib's 'Oooookaaaayyy...' response. 

The final code was complete and the computer ejected two thin like cords. They shot over Zim's head and embedded themselves in his back. Zim closed his eyes as the computer began to run the intrusive diagnostic. At the same time somewhere behind him the Dib human was making ranty noises again, but he didn't pay any attention. All that mattered was he fix his ports somehow and get his pak back on him. 

Unfortunately for all his considering he didn't consider that perhaps the fault was far too complex to fix easily...

"Host body is unrecognized!" The computer announced a couple of seconds (or was it minutes?) later, removing the ports again. "You are an intruder!"

"W-what?!" Zim stammered out. His antennae fell flat again as red lights began flashing in the room. "Computer!" He said, leaping off his chair. "You don't understand! I am--" He fell silent, his red ruby eyes widening. For a horrifying moment he forgot who he was.

"I-I am Zim!" He continued when he remembered, but he didn't sound all that certain of that fact. He gasped as the computer suddenly erupted with cords and pinchers, which shot towards him. "Stop!!" He gasped. "What are you doing?!" He began to struggle as they wrapped around him... 

Rescue came from an unexpected source. "Computer!" Dib's voice shouted from a different part of the room. "Run defense command line Dib alpha one!" 

"Oh... all RIGHT..." The computer sighed. Apparently whatever it was that Dib told the computer to do it worked... there was a beeping sound... a screeching sound... and then the room went back to normal. The cords dropped him and snaked back into the wall as quickly as they had come. 

"What did you DO?!" Zim asked as he turned to face the human. 

Dib was presently sitting upon the laboratory table with one of the towels pressed up against the wound on his neck. He looked extraordinarily smug as he smiled across the room at the little Irken Invader. "Oh, just a little program I DOWNLOADED into your system," He said casually. 

"DOWNloaded?" Zim gapped at him. "Why you wretched--" He stopped suddenly, realizing that he had more important things to worry about. He suddenly grew very pale, then he ran across the room to his pak. Surprisingly enough the pak leapt back on it's broken legs as he approached it. It made an odd clicky sound at him. 

Zim's mouth fell open. "Why?" He said, his face full of hurt and bewilderment. "Why must you defy me?" He asked it. He was vaguely aware of the fact that his words were beginning to slur. No time... 

"Come back here!" He stepped forwards, only to have the pak leapt back again a couple more times. It leapt all the way past him and into the main part of the room. 

Zim followed the retreating device. "Stop!" He ordered it. "Stop... please stop... I need you to live..." He was slowing down. Every step he took was more and more difficult. Finally he stopped all together; his shoulders slumped as he stared down at his broken pak where it lay, barely out of reach. "Please... do not do this to Zim..." He asked it. He reached out to it one last time. 

It clicked at him again. Zim stumbled forwards another step and fell to his knees. His head lulled to the side. Things where beginning to shift into shades of gray...

Vaguely he was aware of his mouth slurring out some more half incoherent pleas at his pak. He was also only half aware of Dib, who had obviously taken pity on him, reaching out for his pak and trying to hand it to him. He fell the rest of the way towards the ground and rested his cheek on the cold hard floor. Now he could hear the loud yelly noises Dib was making as the human found himself struggling to keep the pak from trying to re-integrate with him again. 

The sounds were nice. They sounded so very far away... almost soothing to his poor abused antennae. "Heh... Dib..." he muttered as his eyes began to close. "Stupid-- wormthing... help... Zim..." He closed his eyes all the way. His world went dark. A second later his antennae stopped working. His world became silent as well. And cold. 

The pak in Dib's hands beeped one last time in protest, then stilled. The many devices that had shot from it retreated, going back inside of the pak. Dib dropped it as soon as he was free to do so. It clattered to the floor, obviously dead, looking for the entire world to be a harmless half oval metal shape. It was hard to believe that just seconds previous he had been fighting with the object to keep it from KILLING him. The human boy stood there panting for a moment, then gulped back air and wiped his brow. His neck stung from where sweat had gotten into his fresh cuts and he felt like he had just ran a marathon... 

Slowly the human boy realized that it was more than a little bit quiet in the room. He turned. Sure enough, Zim was sprawled out in the center of the room's floor where he had collapsed, surrounded by electrical equipment, his red eyes closed and deepset on his face. The little alien looked incredibly pale... 

A horrible feeling settled deep in Dib's gut. "Zim?" He questioned. The ten minutes must be up, he thought to himself. But he couldn't be dead... could he? "ZIM!!" He shouted, running for the alien. 

~~~

Meanwhile, half a galaxy away, there sat a... really big ship. It was beyond big. It was huge! Massive. The Massive to be exact. 

And inside the massive sat the governing members of the Irken race. Named Red and Purple for their respective eye colors, they governed their people with respect and diffidence. 

Okay maybe they didn't. In fact they had to be among the laziest leaders the Irken Empire had ever seen. They were prone to snacking and randomly ordering their people to perform menial labour for them in the name of fun. And there had only been one Irken EVER that had managed to deny them their snacks and avoid punishment by their hands when they so dearly wanted it.

That Irken's name was Zim.

Zim they hadn't managed to kill. Each time they tried anything... banishment, tests, and trials, the irritating Irken had managed to escape certain demise to live on and be a Massive sized pain in their side. It had been four years since they had banished the Irken to a little planet named Earth in hope that he would be destroyed, and each day they lived in fear of yet another transmission from earth to announce that the Irken was indeed still alive, if not well. 

Today that would all change. Red noticed it first. Slurping on a slushy, he had glanced over at the computer monitor that kept a running chart of the pak status of all the Irken's in the empire. There he saw that one of the paks' was flashing red. That... wasn't good. Usually when a pak flashed red, it meant that the pak had disengaged from its Irken host. If a pak had disengaged from it's host it meant that either the host body was dying or the pak had corrupted. Either way that meant the Irken had only a few scant moments of life left. 

That wasn't what was so fascinating though... it was the name that registered on the monitor next to the flashing pak symbol. 

"Hey would you look at that...?" Red said to his co-ruler Purple, beckoning him over with a two-fingered hand.

Purple glided over to him and peered down at the monitor. He then looked back up at Red.

"Zim." Both of them said at the same time.

"I wonder what happened?" Red mused. 

Purple threw his head back with a little snort. "Who cares?" He said. As they watched the pak stopped flashing red and went a solid red color. They both knew what that meant. 

"Zim's pak is dead..." Red said slowly. "That means he is too..." 

Suddenly both rulers looked at each other with dawning realization in their eyes. "YEAH! Whoho!" They both declared in unison. 

"Lets go get us some nachos!" Purple added. 

Red thought that was a more than appropriate way to celebrate the death of the biggest irritant the Irken Empire had ever seen. With that they both made to zoom off... but not before Red paused to enter a command into the computer. He smirked as he finished and entered the command, then with that made to follow his co-ruler on a very important trip towards snacks. 

~~~ 

Four years ago, Dib might have been just as happy as the hated Irken's leaders. However now... now he wasn't. And no matter how futile it was, he was also bound and determined to save his little friend... 

He reached the Irken in a matter of seconds, and rolled the limp body onto it's back. It took him only seconds to realize that Zim wasn't breathing. Even though he knew it was probably futile to try to bring the Irken back after his pak had fallen off, Dib knew he had to try. 

"Come on Zim, breathe!" He shouted. He brought his hand down, hard, into the middle of the alien's chest. He did it again. And again, this time especially hard. Finally he stopped and for a horrible moment everything seemed to stand still... 

And then the Irken's chest heaved. It heaved again and then the Irken erupted into a great coughing fit. 

Dib rocked back on his heels, and let out a huge sigh of relief. He grinned as he inspected the Irken, then reached down and carefully propped his head up in his arms. _'Amazing.'_ He thought as he watched the Irken's breathing level out. _'So maybe Irkens really CAN live without their paks...'_ Even as he thought it, he knew he wasn't out of the danger zone yet. He had no idea what kind of injuries the Irken had sustained... he _had _been bleeding profusely a little less than a half an hour previous. He could be severely brain damaged for at he knew... or be memory-less. Didn't Zim say his brain was contained in that pak?

It took a couple minutes, but Zim finally came around. "Mmmm..." His head rolled to the side and a worry line formed upon his green forehead. 

"Zim?" Dib questioned.

Zim's eyes flew open. For a long moment he stared up at the human, then he quickly scrambled out of his arms and to his feet. "Wha--? Whe-? WHO?!" He began, his eyes darting about desperately. All he saw was the distruction about the room. And the blood on the floor and part of the walls. He was as naked as a new born smeet as well. He didn't understand... 

_'Well that just leaves when and why,'_ Dub thought ruefully. "Zim." He repeated. He reached out towards the Irken. "It's me. Dib." He continued in a gentle voice that he hoped would calm the alien somewhat. 

If at all the confused look on the Irken's face grew. "I don--" Sudden recognition flooded his face. "I know you!" He declared suddenly, thrusting an ungloved finger in Dib's direction. "WHAT are you DOING in my BASE?!" 

Dib's jaw dropped. "What--?" He began. 

"Computer! COM-PUT-ER!" Zim hollered. He leapt across the room and clambered onto the bed, then pressed himself against the back wall. "Seize that horrible... creature-- thing!" He made a face as he spoke. "And get it out of my base!" 

"Command voice unrecognized." Was the computer's unconcerned reply. 

Zim looked horrified. "WHAT?" He screamed. He shook his fist up at the ceiling. "DARE you defy your MASTER?! I am--" 

"Zim!" Dib cried out at the same time, trying to reach the alien. "Don't you remember anything that's happened in the last couple hours?" When Zim looked confused, Dib elaborated. "Your pak fell off and--" 

Zim didn't even turn around to check his back. Instead he focused his hate filled gaze on the human and leveled his fist at him instead. "You speak nonsense human! An Irken cannot SURVIVE without his pak..." The alien trailed off. He stood there on the bed for a moment, and then his entire body tensed, his eyes staring off at nothing. He stayed frozen like that for a time, and then as Dib watched he let out a long thin wail and stumbled forwards. He fell off the bed to the floor with a thump that sounded painful. 

"... Zim?" Dib repeated as he made his way over to the fallen Irken. As he approached Zim began to thrash about, high pitched whimpering sounds welling up from his throat. He leaned down and reached out, trying to hold him by his shoulders.

"Don't TOUCH ME!" Zim screamed. His fist came flying towards the human and the boy leapt back again to avoid injury. 

As Dib watched Zim cried out and brought his hands down, curved into claws, and dug them into his stomach. He brought them up again quickly, leaving two twin rows of long raking cuts down his front. 

"Stop!" Dib gasped out, his ears ringing with the alien's screams. All he could see was blood and for some reason seeing Zim cut himself open with his own hands horrified him. "Zim, what--?!" 

Zim ignored him and instead rolled on his side, his claws embedding into his upper arms. "It BURNS!" He yelled as he scratched himself down his arms, leaving more raking wounds in their wake. He continued to scream as he thrashed about on the floor. 

"ST~OP!" Dib's hand flew up to grasp the sides of his head as Zim's screams seemed to almost echo inside his skull. The headache that caused was incredible. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then opened them again. "Computer!" He yelled out in desperation. "Do you have any idea what is _wrong_ with him?!" 

"I... don't know..." Was the unhelpful reply. 

"You don't have any idea at ALL?" Dib shot back quickly above Zim's sounds. "He hasn't exhibited any behavior like this before has he?" 

"Subject is unknown." The computer said. 

Dib swore under his breath. He was going to have to fix the computer so that it recognized Zim as the same Zim he had always been. 

At that moment Zim scratched himself again, bringing a twin trail of deep cuts across his chest to join the growing multitude. 

Dib couldn't take it anymore. "STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" He yelled. He leapt for the little Irken again, trying to restrain him by holding him around his middle. He only ended up receiving a row of long raking cuts across his jaw for his effort. He wouldn't be deterred. He went in again and grunted out his protest as he bodily hauled the convulsing alien to his feet. He lifted him up and flipped him onto the bed. Determined to not let him harm himself any further he began to put the alien into restrains. He had only managed to get one arm in when Zim caught on. Letting out an unearthly howl, the alien thrashed harder against him. 

"How dare you! How dare you, you filthy stink beast! Restrain Zim in his own home!?" And then, when Dib had managed to wrestle the other arm into a restraint, Zim went berserk. "NO!" He cried out, kicking and bucking against the human. "NOOOOOOOOO! I will not be cut open in my own _base_!" 

Dib ignored him and grabbed for one of his legs, placing that in a restraint, then did the same with the other. All the while Zim ranted at him, calling him any number of insults, most of which made absolutely no sense. It was only when he was finished and breathing heavily from the exertion that he afforded himself a glance at the alien's face. 

He instantly felt sorry for him. Anger warred with fear upon the alien's face, but the fear was very quickly winning out. His teeth were clenched and his eyes were as wide as they could possibly go as he tested his new bonds. 

"Let me go!" Zim said as he continued to yank against the restraints violently. "Letmego, letmego... please..." Zim's voice broke. The alien squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head to the side, taking in a couple deep gasps of breath. 

Dib looked at him for a long moment. Then he swore again, softly this time and reached down, grabbing one of the towels that had fallen to the floor during the struggle. He took his glasses off and mopped his face and neck, removing sweat and blood that was both his and the Irken's. Pulling the cloth away he made a face at the Christmas colored collection of substances on it and dropped it again. He then sighed and slumped slightly against the end of the laboratory bed. 

He was exhausted. If he had known this was what he'd have to deal with when Gaz had approached him after school he might have very well reconsidered coming. 

Then again, he realized, if he hadn't Zim might be dead right now. 

He might still be dead, he thought. He didn't have any idea if the little alien was going to survive or not. 

He looked up, and a pained expression crossed his face as small whimpering sounds starting to come from Zim again. 

Either way he wasn't going to get any relief any time soon was he? Dib sighed and turned away from the table. There was nothing else he could do for him, at least not without a little bit of research. He walked over to his laptop and picked it up. Intent on ignoring Zim's screams, he settled into a corner of the room that wasn't splattered with blood and switched on his laptop. 

During the next hour or so, through all the mostly incoherent screams and yells from the laboratory bed, Dib hacked into Zim's computer systems like he had never hacked before. First he changed the programming on the computer, adjusting it to recognize Zim as the same person as he always was, despite his changed DNA. From that he modified the computer to recognize him as the actual master of the house, reasoning to himself that it was merely to protect Zim who was presently unable to help himself. 

He was also able to determine that the scratching himself in such a manner had indeed happened before, back when Zim had been in heat. He could only guess at its meaning, but one theory had to do with his changing body. If Zim's body had been changing rapidly and that caused his blood to burn or hurt him in some way, then that made sense compared with Zim's recent actions. If Zim was still alive after loosing his pak, then obviously his body was undergoing some very drastic changes indeed to compensate for the lack of mechanical control... 

At that time Dib searched the computer for any information he could find on Irken history, biology, anything. That confirmed what he needed to know about the pak indeed being the control brain for the Irken body, but it was also there that he discovered that Irken's also had a perfectly capable brain in their heads as well. The brain in Zim's head just didn't know how to run his body that was all. 

He glanced up at the Irken, who was currently babbling disjointedly about meese. Or something. It looked like Zim's organic brain had picked up functioning fine... if a little bit addledly. 

He continued. The history he found was more than a little bit interesting. Irkens apparently were originally a technologically disinclined peaceful race, who had come to depend on the paks as a collective idea. The words "to unite them under a common cause!" made Dib's eyebrow raise slightly. That sounded somewhat... sinister. He also discovered what Zim had already told him in less words... the pak conflicted with several thousands of years worth of evolution and heat had to be regulated to a certain time because it could not be surpressed completely. He couldn't find much information on what Irkens were like before they had paks, which didn't help him at ALL when it came to figuring out how to help Zim. He did however put two and two together and figured that Zim's heat and his incompatible alien DNA in his system had something to do with the little alien's pak disengaging suddenly. He peered across the room to where the dead pak sat in the corner. He had probably corrupted it unintentionally. Maybe that was why it had been attacking him. 

He wondered if the pak was responsible for killing the babies as well. That caused a chill to sweep through him. He wondered if the pak was really that smart. It seemed so little and insignificant over there on the floor all by it's self... then again... 

"Dib?" 

The alien's voice called his attention back to the table. He got up and went to over to it silently. His eyes widened as he realized that the alien wasn't looking at him. Instead his gaze was focused somewhere at the ceiling. 

"It hurts," The alien whimpered softly. "It hurts... it hurts..."

Dib frowned and leaned over the table where his head was. When the alien did nothing but stare at the ceiling, Dib reached out and put his arm around him, shaking him very gently. "Zim...?" He questioned.

The Irken's head swiveled towards him, and for a long moment he just stared at Dib. Dib was beginning to wonder if he recognized him, when the Irken began to speak. 

"Please," He said, and his voice sounded just like a little human child's. "Please stop. It hurts Dib. It hurts so bad. Make it stoooooop..." 

Dib let go and stared at him. _'I'm not the one hurting you, it's your body,'_ He thought. Even as he said it, he knew he was slightly wrong. If he was right about his DNA in Zim's system being responsible for Zim's pak disengaging, then he was wrong in saying it wasn't his fault Zim was suffering. He didn't like being wrong, but he couldn't deny the truth in this. He sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm sorry." He said, honestly. He really did mean it. He opened his eyes and gazed down, only to find himself looking directly into the Irken's eyes. Past the pain a tiny ray of hope seemed to exist in them and this was focused right at him. 

"I can't stop it Zim," Was all he said. It was all he could say. 

Zim's face fell. Hope faded quickly into despair on it, and then the Irken shut his eyes again. He rolled his head away, and drew in a couple of quick shuddering breaths as he focused his gaze on the wall. Then he could hear soft hitching sounds coming from the alien, and it didn't take him long to realize what they were. 

The thin broken sound of the Irken's sobs made Dib feel like he had kicked a puppy or something. He shut his eyes again and brought his head down against the bed with a soft thump. Damn it all to hell. 

He gave in. He decided that he couldn't leave him. Instead he crawled up on the bed as well, and laid himself down next to the shaking, bound and frightened creature. He wrapped his arm as best he could around him and held him. "Shh..." He tried helpfully. "It's okay..." 

The subdued shuddering noises of grief coming from the Irken his only reply. 

According to his laptop, it was about 4 in the morning when Zim's eyes fell out. They had gotten progressively more glazed over the course of the early hours. It was about five minutes before when the tired Irken had muttered something about not being able to see at all when he blinked and they fell off like giant husks as if from an insect or a snake. Zim kept his eyes closed after that, adding that pain to his lists of pains to moan and groan about. 

At about 6 or 7 am, the Irken fell asleep. His breathing evened out and his brow unknotted, much to Dib's utter relief. He lay with him for a little while longer, partly to make sure the alien didn't stop breathing, then used aching limbs to push himself off of the bed. He limped over to his little corner of the room and after a couple of softly spoken commands to the computer, had it make him a couch. Once it was made he curled up in it, using the least dirtied towel as a pillow, too tired to have the ornery computer to make him anything else. Soon he was fast asleep as well... 


	8. Chapter 8

Once again apologies for the delay. My life has been quite busy lately. No promises that this will be updated frequently any longer, just so I don't disappoint my readers any more than I need to. I will try to write more whenever I can... that is all I can promise. 

~~~

That morning Dib's dreams were a disturbing collection of images and events. One moment he was running, scared, down a darkened alleyway as the sounds of death and destruction came at him from all directions, the next he was tied down on an autopsy table as hooded scientists cut him open with sharp surgical instruments and he screamed and he screamed at them that he was human but they wouldn't listen... 

He awoke with a start and for a surreal moment he had no idea where on earth he was. 

Then he remembered. Groaning, he sat up and rubbed at his eyes for a moment. A quick glance at his laptop screen told him the time was 11:31 am, which meant that he had slept for less than four hours. 

With a moan he flopped back down on the couch. His tummy rumbled and he realized almost simultaneously that his bladder was full. Sighing, he resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to get any more sleep anytime soon, and began to go about his day. 

First he checked on Zim, who was still tied to the bed and still sound asleep. Figuring that it would be safe to do so, he let the alien out of his foot restraints, but then decided to keep him in the arm restraints just in case. 

He then wandered upstairs after that to take care of both feeding and relieving himself. That led him to "talking" to GIR for a bit, who interrupted his morning cartoon watching to demand to know what had happened to his master. Dib reassured the robot that his master was perfectly okay, hoping that he was being truthful in this case. After that he raided the fridge something to eat (Gir has a lot of food for a mechanical whatzit, He thought to himself idly as he inspected the contents). After a quick usage of a convenient corner of the backyard, he went back downstairs again.

It took some convincing, but finally the computer coughed up a clear goopey substance that it said would kill germs and clean, but not cause any harm to befall the Irken. For the next while and feeling very much like he was cleaning his lab, (and not liking it one bit) Dib set about cleaning the room they were in. Zim, for his credit slept through it all and didn't even stir as Dib washed down both his green blood splattered body and the table he was on. 

By 2 pm he had finally managed to get all the blood off the far wall and sunk back into the cushions of the couch, exhausted already. He opened his laptop again and listlessly hacked into the school's computers, just to see if he had missed anything at school that day. He hadn't, at least nothing he couldn't catch up on once he got back.

Just as listlessly he wondered if anyone had missed him at school that day. He stopped thinking about it when he realized the only person who might have noticed was his counselor, Ms. England, and that was just depressing. 

At 4 in the afternoon Zim still hadn't woken up, and Dib was seriously considering going back to sleep again. He was grumpy, miserable, tired and hungry again. He also vaguely wondered what was wrong with him. He realized that he was sitting right in the mists of tons of really COOL alien machinery, but for some reason he couldn't get up the enthusiasm to do anything with any of it.

"What *is* wrong with me?" He mumbled, burying his face into a couch cushion. He sighed and rolled over again so that he was peering up at the ceiling. Frowning he lay there and thought, his mind going over all sorts of things. Most of them had to do with Zim. He wondered if the alien would wake up anytime soon. He wondered if he did if he was going to be mentally deficient (at least more than he already was) or normal. He wondered if Zim would be able to see again and if new eyes would grow to replace the ones that had fallen out. 

He wondered what had caused him to decide to share the bed with the alien throughout the night and hold him. He had no obligation to the little green creature. Zim was cold, cruel and insane... not something that needed help and sympathy. 

_'He'd never do that for you,'_ Dib thought to himself grumpily_. 'You know what he'd do. He'd sit back and laugh and TAUNT you. You KNOW he would.' _Dib frowned, then sighed one last time and turned on his side, peering miserably over at the table that held the sleeping alien. "Hurray for being human I guess," he muttered to himself bitterly.

It was only a couple minutes later as Dib lay staring despondently at the ceiling when he heard a crashing sound from outside of the room. This was followed by a very familiar sounding "FUCK.", and a couple more crashes. 

Dib smiled slightly, but didn't move. He knew that voice. 

A couple seconds later Gaz came walking into the room. She held her game system in one hand and a grocery bag in the other. 

"Wow." She commented dryly, once she had caught sight of her brother. "Look whose made himself at home." 

"Shut up," Dib replied without heat. 

Gaz shrugged. The grocery bag she was holding came sailing through the air and landed with a crash at the base of the couch. 

Dib managed to get up enough effort to crane his neck over the side of the couch to look at it. It contained food, he noticed, as an apple came rolling to a stop against the side of the couch, close to him. His sister had decided that he might need food. How nice of her, he thought. 

"Thanks," Dib mumbled as he sat up and bent down to pick up the wayward apple. 

Gaz grunted at him in reply. He watched as she trekked across the room and peered over the side of the bed that Zim was on. Her eyes traveled down the length of his bound body and for the first time in he thought ever, he saw his grumpy anti-social sister blush. 

"Oh for crying out loud Dib," She said with a growl, turning away from the bed and looking extraordinarily angry all of a sudden. "Did you even think to cover him?" She asked accusingly.

For a stunned moment, Dib didn't understand why Gaz looked so angry. Then it occurred to him. He shrugged helplessly, suddenly rather embarrassed himself. "His, uh, clothes got all bloody," He returned a bit lamely. "And the towels." Admittedly Zim's nakedness hadn't even bothered him until Gaz had decided to show up... 

Gaz raised an eyebrow, glowered at him for a moment or so more, then she shook her head. He watched as she walked across the room, then exited it. A minute or so later she returned, a blanket folded up and tucked under her arm. 

"Where did you get that?" Dib asked her as she trekked back over to the alien and covered him with it, taking the time to tuck it in under his shoulders. 

Gaz didn't reply. Instead she completed what she was doing and went back to the entrance of the room. There she paused, only long enough to turn back and inspect her brother where he sat. 

"If... _he_ dies, I get the base." She said. 

Dib's jaw dropped slightly. "Hey!" He protested. "You can't have...!" But by that time Gaz was already gone. 

~~~

It was at school. He had captured Zim, pinning the little wriggling bit of alien flesh beneath his larger body. The alien panted, wearied from the chase, and growled up at him from between clenched teeth. For a moment he wondered why the alien did not attack him back-- push spider legs out from his pack and toss him off of his smaller form with his superior strength, but then the world faded from all about him. He looked up, distracted by the changing shapes and colors all around. 

When he took in his surroundings again he became aware of the fact that he was in one of Zim's many labs. Zim was still pinned beneath him, squirming desperately to get away, and suddenly he had an evil thought. He reached up with one hand and grabbed at the alien's face, yanking his fake hair from his head and his contacts from his eyes. He then reached down again, grabbing for the alien's free arm and pinning it back to the side of his body... 

Zim glowered up at him, obviously unhappy with this turn of events. "Let me GO!" He ranted loudly. "Or I'll make sure you regret it!"

Dib only smirked in reply. Suddenly they were both naked and Zim's eyes widened. He didn't look so sure of himself anymore. "Dib?" His questioned, his voice thin and uncertain. 

Dib still didn't reply. All of a sudden he felt both hot and cold at the same time, and for a fearful moment he wondered if he was really going to go through with it. Then he did, and in one swift snap of his hips he slid into the warm body. He groaned with the sensation. It felt so good, violating the alien-- invading the invader. Zim's head fell back, his mouth slightly open as he gasped for breath, a low keening escaping from his throat, his long alien tongue snaking out to moisten-- 

"Dib?" 

Dib awoke with a start, disorientated... and unbearably aroused. For a moment he stared up at the ceiling, trying desperately to piece together what was real and what was not, when Zim's voice called out to him again. 

"Dib human?" It asked, sounding a bit plaintive. 

Dib sat up quickly, rubbing at his eyes. A quick glance at his laptop told him it was 8:21 PM. He had slept for a little less than an hour. Wearily the human got to his feet. After a bit of shuffling around and a mental command at his body to behave, he trekked over to the table. He noted as he approached that Zim had kicked the blanket from atop his body with his feet, but his arms where still tied. With the mental images from his dream still crashing about his head Dib nearly did a double take. He never thought seeing Zim tied to a table could be so... erotic. Then he remembered himself. "Y-yeah?" He asked, blushing despite himself. _'I need to think of something else... quickly...'_

"I think I'm done now," The alien said, giving him a particularly haughty look. Dib was relieved to see that the Irken's eyes had been replaced with new red ones, and even these looked a little bit shinier and brighter than the last. They were mesmerizing...

Zim tugged against his restraints as if to remind him. "Release me." He demanded, his voice sharp and abrasive.

Dib blinked, then hesitated for a moment. "Are you sure you're not going to hurt yourself anymore?" He asked, forcing his voice to be a more normal accusingly toned one. 

Zim's lovely new eyes narrowed dangerously. Dib didn't even wait for him to speak again. He went for the first strap, undoing it quickly. 

The second one followed suit just as fast. 

Zim wasted no time. The moment he was free he leapt to his feet. When Dib looked up at the alien, the alien's hand snaked out, grabbing Dib by his forearm. The human let out a little yelp as claws began to dig into his flesh. That didn't stop Zim... if anything the alien gripped his arm tighter... until Dib had nearly doubled over onto himself. "Zim!" He cried out. 

The alien merely narrowed his eyes dangerously. "This is all your fault Dib human!" the alien hissed.

For a split second Dib wondered if he was still dreaming and the dream had just decided to turn into a nightmare on him. He winced as he realized the pain was far too real for this to be a dream. He stared at the alien. "How could you possibly blame this on me?" He yelled as he tried to yank his arm free. "In case you didn't notice it was YOU who decided to go into heat-- Zim!" He cried out again as the alien twisted his arm in his grasp, wrenching the human closer to him. 

"If you hadn't kidnapped me in the first place, this would have never happened." Zim spat out, his red eyes full of rage. He reached out, grabbing the human's other arm and hauling him even closer still. "You did this, you HORRIBLE..." 

Dib wasn't listening anymore. Instead he had begun to struggle, managing to yank his second arm free again. That one he used to push the alien away from himself. Zim only dung in harder with the arm he still held. 

That was enough. "FUCK! Zim! Let go! You're _hurting_ me! Stop...!" He stopped trying to yank away and instead punched the alien with his free hand.

The punch caught the alien squarely across the jaw and Zim finally let him go, which caused them both to fall to the floor. 

Almost as quickly as he had begun, Zim stopped his attack on the human. Getting to his feet abruptly, the alien ran across the room and called out for the same control panel he had used when he had first lost his pack. With a few quick taps he called forth the interface again. 

"Computer! Fix my clothing!" He ordered. With that he stepped away from the computer and stood still in front of it. 

For a second the computer seemed to hesitate. Then "All right..." It grumbled. 

"I fixed the computer," Dib announced unnecessarily from behind Zim. 

The alien ignored him. 

Sighing, Dib sat back and watched as twin egg shaped objects ejected from the walls and came towards Zim. They encased the small alien and a second later fell away, leaving a fully disguised and clothed alien in their wake.

Zim blinked, inspecting the cuffs of his new jacket. "I didn't need this computer!" He announced, sounding disgruntled. With that he shrugged off the jean jacket. "Or this or this..." The contacts and hair followed suit, falling to the floor. Soon a clothed but very alien invader stood in front of Dib. 

Without giving Dib a second glance, the alien stuck his nose in the air and marched from the room. 

"Zim?" Dib called out after him. "Zim!" He tried again when there was no reply. 

Still no answer. Dib was just about to follow the alien when he realized that there was no point. Especially if Zim seemed bent on ignoring him. Sighing he wandered back over to the couch. It was... disappointing. Not a word of thanks. Nothing except for a row of clawlike bruises along both his arms from Zim, a cut along his neck from Zim's pak, and a bruised and sore body. 

"I hate this," Dib whined out loud to whoever would listen. Which was no one. Finally he managed to gather up the energy to pack his stuff in his bag. Grumbling he shouldered it... and stood there considering. After a moment he walked across the room to the pile of junk. Shoving a few choice alien artifacts in his bag, he then walked to the front of the room. For a moment he stood in the doorway, taking in the room where he had just spent the last 24 hours, then with a sigh he turned away. 

He managed to get all the way out of the house without so much of having to hug Gir's pet monkey "smokey". In fact he was all the way down the walk and one house away when the house behind him erupted into a ball of flame. 

He turned back around, his mouth hanging open. For a long moment that was all he could do, as he took in the wall of orange and yellow flames. For the second time in a little less than an hour he wondered if he was still stuck in a dream or some kind of nightmare. It was only when a metallic object hit him over the head that he distracted back to the present. Dib looked down as the metal object made a particular metallic-y clank on the pavement.

"Hi!" A rather charred Gir said up at him, waving an equally charred hand at the same time. 

Dib managed to shut his jaw long enough to stutter out some sentences. "Gir! I didn't ... I mean I didn't do that!" He pointed wildly to the now totaled base. "That wasn't me!!" And then he allowed himself to look back at the base and really look at it... and gape at it in complete awe. Flames were arching into the darkened night sky, licking along the rod that held up Zim's aerial antennae on his roof. "That's incredible..." 

And then he realized that if it wasn't a dream, then who had been in that house. "Zim!" He gasped. "ZIM!!"

Something warm and soft touched his arm. He looked down desperately to see Gir was holding a rather charred stuffed animal up to him, offering it to him. Dib pushed it away abruptly. "No Gir!" He said quickly. "ZIM!!" He tried to run up to the house, but the incredible heat pushed him back again before he could even step foot on the lawn. It was hopeless... 

"Go home son." 

Rubbing the smoke from his tearing eyes, Dib stared blearily up at fireman. He had watched, alternating between feelings of shock and concern for nearly an hour as the firemen came and battled to put out the blaze, as well as preventing it from spreading to the nearby houses. Presently there was nothing left of the alien's house... even the lawn gnomes had been destroyed... melted it appeared, in the incredible heat from the fire. It was a fact that he refused to accept. His mind just couldn't comprehend that one moment he had been walking away and the next the base was just _gone_... 

The fireman smiled at him kindly. "Go home," he repeated. "It's two in the morning. You should get some sleep."

Dib blinked. "But I..." He said. He made a motion at the charred wreckage. "My friend..." He nearly choked on the words, but even as he said them he knew they were true. Zim was his friend. And, pending a miracle, he was very dead. 

The fireman's face fell. For a moment he studied Dib's face in a searching manner then turned back to look at the house. "I'm sorry son," he said finally. "But there is no way anyone could have survived that." He must have seen something on Dib's face because he apologized again. "I'm sorry," he repeated.

Dib stared at the house for a long time. Finally he shook his head slightly and forced himself to turn away. Still feeling like everything was more than slightly surreal, he trudged to the end of the street and after a moments hesitation turned towards home. He was so shocked and lost in his thoughts he didn't even notice the military vehicle sitting at the end of the street as he walked by it... 

~~~


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks again to Jrandomlurker for her continuing beta-ness of this epic _thing_ that just won't die. :)

~~~

"I have to check." 

Gaz looked up from her game long enough to glance at her brother. He stood at the doorway of the house... covered from head to foot in heavy clothing and decked out with everything from a pick axe and rope to a hard hat with a flashlight taped onto the top of it. In fact he looked like he was just about to head off on a mountaineering or caving exploit, not to go exploring the destroyed wreck of Zim's house. 

"Mmmhm," Gaz replied, returning her attention back to her game. 

She didn't see it, but she could imagine the look of frustration that crept across Dib's face. "Don't you care?" He asked.

"Not especially," She replied. 

"Funny," Dib said, a biting tone to his voice. "You seemed to care enough to come over and check on him the other day." 

Gaz looked up and for a moment she studied the wall in front of her. Then she turned back again to give Dib a glare of a lifetime. "Are you GOING now?" she asked. 

Dib held her glare for a moment. Even so he lost. Sighing he looked away and turned to go, yanking the door shut behind himself as he went. 

The base was in better shape than he remembered. Then again, everything was a wonderful charred color of black, so that wasn't saying much. Dib was surprised to see that the outside structure was still standing, though all the windows had been shattered and the roof looked like it had half caved in. Charred forms around the yard could have passed for the lawn gnomes and the satellite that had once sat upon Zim's roof... maybe.

He felt like he was walking in a war zone as he picked his way across the yard. There was no way he could have described what he was feeling if asked about it later. Horror. A bit. Also a feeling that he was most definitely going to be sick. 

It had certainly been the most interesting 48 hours he had ever lived through. First the babies... then Zim's pak... then the exploding base last night. He hadn't slept a wink that night again... instead 5 am found him staring blankly at the TV screen as it played late night commercials. 

After he had convinced himself that he wasn't dreaming, he wondered what the chances were that Zim may have made it through that alive. He supposed it all depended on how much of the underground part of the base had been on fire and if it was anywhere near the alien when it happened.

He also wondered how on earth such a horrible thing could have happened in the first place. He couldn't think of any reason at all... so many possibilities, but not one of them was plausible. He knew... he KNEW he hadn't done that. All of the computer systems had been working fine when he left. 

He also wondered if Gir was still alive. Right before the firemen had arrived Gir had babbled something about roasting marshmallows and had taken off, running right back into the flames as they soared and sparked high into the night air. He had stopped screaming Zim's name and started yelling at Gir to return. He had yelled himself hoarse at him to come back, but the little robot hadn't. 

Glass crackled beneath his feet as he made his way through the main part of the house. It looked like nothing had survived intact... and nothing looked familiar to him at all. It was only when he glanced up that he realized that the roof section had collapsed in on it's self, and the blackened lump in the center of what had once been the living room floor could only be the remains of Zim's voot cruiser. Dib let out a long low whistle as he edged his way past it. The horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach only grew at the sight. Now he was sure that Zim was dead. There was no way something that could reduce Zim's spaceship to blackened melted rubble wouldn't happily eat through alien flesh...

He found the entrance to the base was at least uncoverable, as he pushed aside the porcelain toilet that was at least intact, even if it was now black from the ash and smoke. He blinked down the darkened shaft below and sighed, reaching up and switching on his hat's flashlight. Nimble fingers tied rope around his waist, tied the end around a twisted metal piece of the voot cruiser. With a mock salute at no one, Dib lowered himself down into the hole. 

It seemed to take much longer this time for him to reach bottom. He tested his footing and let go of the rope, turning quickly to fish in his bag. It was incredibly smokey down here still and he was having difficulties breathing. He found his inhaler mask and strapped it on over his face. Drawing in a couple deep breaths he turned his head to either side, looking around the place. There wasn't much to see. Only twisted metal and blackened walls that indicated a fire had swept through here as well. The broken bits of shrapnel about also seemed to suggest that the fire wasn't caused by just burning, but rather that some sort of explosion had happened in this place. 

"Did you somehow blow yourself up?" Dib asked out loud, his voice slightly nasal through the mask. The thought angered him somewhat. "After I worked so _hard_ to save you..."

It didn't take him long to make it to a room. It was in horrible condition and a nervous feeling fluttered in Dib's chest as the light from his hard hat ran over the objects in the room. Everything was black and twisted looking. Nothing was recognizable. It looked like the ruins of bombed out buildings he had occasionally saw on TV... except this was real. 

He drew in a sharp breath and made his way further into the room, forcing himself to focus. He took a couple careful steps over some large pieces of metal that looked like they had pushed up from the floor and made his way over to the wall that looked like it was the least damaged. Running his hands over it, he finally found what he was looking for. 

It took using a piece of metal from the floor as a crow bar but he finally got the computer port open. Despite his hopes the computer port was blackened and there was no indication that it was going to run. He had to try though. Wrestling his laptop out of his bag, he hooked it up and tried to convince it to work. 

No such luck. The computer's circuitry was completely fried.

Sighing, Dib got up and packed his laptop away again. He went back out to where the elevator shaft was and looked up. He could see sky far above him from a hole in the roof. He turned away again, focusing his light back on the ruined hallway that disappeared into darkness. He would probably have to press deeper if he had any hope of finding Zim... or Zim's remains...

The base was in better condition the farther down he went, Dib noticed as he made his way through the tunnels. Then again, it was only in the tunnels that he went into that he noticed this. Some of the tunnels were completely blocked off by debris. 

Every so often he would stop at a computer control panel, especially if it was in recognizable condition and try to bring up the computer. Each time he did so he was faced with disappointment as the computer refused to respond to his commands. Nothing was working. 

It felt like hours had gone by when he saw something move farther down the hall from him. Dib froze in his tracks, staring where his flashlight focused in on the end of the dark and smoky hall. 

"Hello?" He called out cautiously as he stepped forwards. His heart hammered in his chest. He hoped to god that he had been seeing things. This was NOT the way he wanted to die... several stories underneath the earth in the bombed out remains of a base that used to belong to an alien invader...

He had nearly reached the end of the hall and decided to try to call out a greeting again, when it leapt in front of his face. 

Dib let out a scream loud enough to raise the dead, and fell backwards. His hat fell off his head and clattered behind him. The flashlight turned off, leaving the boy in the complete dark. The creature landed on his chest. Dib froze... for an instant he was too terrified to move.

"HI!!" It said cheerfully. Now that his flashlight wasn't shining on it, Dib could see a twin pair of round blue eyes focused on him, inches away from his face. 

Dib let out a huge sigh of relief. "Gir!" He hissed, scrambling back to his feet and grabbing for his hat. "You startled me!" He said as he readjusted his flashlight to focus down on the robot. 

"Aw..." The robot replied and began to dance around in a circle, humming tunelessly as he did so. 

Dib rolled his eyes. "Gir..." He said. When the robot didn't reply he tried again. "Gir?" 

Gir stopped and peered up at him. "Mmmhumm?" He said. 

"Do you know where Zim is?" Dib asked. "Is he still alive?"

Gir looked frightened. "Master?" He said looking around quickly. "Where?" 

Dib crouched down so that he was more level with the robot. "Not here Gir." He said very slowly as if he was talking to a small child. "Do you know where he is?" 

Gir looked pensive for a moment. Then he nodded. "Mmmmhumm." 

"You do?" Dib asked. 

Gir still looked pensive for a while. Then he burst into laughter. "I have no idea!" He said, giggling like that was the funniest thing he had ever said. 

Dib swore under his breath.

That just made the insane robot laugh harder. "You said FUCK!" Gir howled, pointing at Dib. 

Dib winced. "Gir..." He began as he stood up again.

Gir was a lost case. "Eeehehehehehefuckfuckfuck!" The robot declared, running up the wall and back down again. 

Dib held his head in his hands for a moment. Finally he gave up. Shrugging, he stepped by the giggling robot and went to continue exploring the rest of the hall beyond. 

".... where are you going?" Gir voice followed him. 

"To find Zim," Dib replied grumpily without even looking back. 

There was a pause. Then, "You're going the wrong way!" Gir announced cheerfully. 

Dib turned back around then. "GIR!!!" He howled. 

~~~

Zim slowly opened one of his eyes. He could hear him. The human. He was yelling at his robot. He smiled past dry, blood-encrusted lips and then closed his eye again. He could hear him. That was all that mattered. He moved his neck, about the only thing he could still move and nestled his head in the dirt. The human would be able to assess his damages, and declare whether he could fix him or not. If not at least the human could put him out of his misery. Hopefully the later. He wasn't sure if he wanted to live anymore. 

"It looks like you got what you always wanted Dib," He whispered painfully to himself. "... my body. You can stick thingys in it and do all sorts of horrible testy things..." he would have wiggled his fingers if he could even move one of his arms. Which he couldn't. One of them was pinned down by stuff and the other one was most definitely broken. "Oh what a horrible end to ZIM~~..." His voice trailed off as he found it much too painful to continue talking. 

He shut his eyes and concentrated on just breathing. He wanted his pak back. His mind was all confused and he wanted his pak back because of it. His pak made him less confused. He understood things then. His pak would be able to tell him why the horrible Tallest had programmed his base to self-destruct. His pak may have even told him that it wasn't the Tallest that had done it. That it had in fact been Dib... the filthy human that had done it. He was responsible for destroying his home. Not his Tallest. Never mind that the base had exploded the moment after he commanded the computer to open up a communication link to the Massive. His Tallest... 

The job he had always wanted... 

They thought he was dead. He knew that. He also knew why the Tallest had done what they had done. It was one of the many pieces of information that apparently had existed in his real brain all along and not his pak brain. The details were vague, not nearly as crisp and clear as data from his pak had been, but he knew enough to piece his thoughts together. The Tallest did that to some Irken Invaders when they died far from home. It was to prevent the locals from acquiring any information about the Irken race that could somehow be used against them someday. Brutal, but effective. 

The more he thought about it, the clearer the details became. It was merely procedure, he thought. Especially against particularly hostile beings. He blinked as the information crystallized in his head, becoming sharper as he focused on them. 

It was *almost* like he had a slow, ineffective connection with his pak still.

But... he was still confused. Why destroy his base then? The humans, except for a choice few of course, where stupid. "You didn't _need_ to destroy my base... my beautiful _base_...!" Zim whispered mournfully. "The humans are no threat to you."

He would have physically started at that thought, had he the energy or the ability to move. He wasn't thinking like he usually did. Amazed he wondered as his mind jumped from one logical conclusion to the next. Further more he knew the answer to his musing even as he thought it. The humans WEREN'T a threat to the empire. 

But he was STILL confused. "Why would you destroy my base?" he continued. "If the humans pose no threat to you and I am dead... why would you destroy it? What if I was not dead my Tallest?" There was the question he didn't understand. He had always had the ability to bounce back and live through nearly anything. Obviously, as he was still very much alive. What if it had been a malfunction? What if the pak had been merely sending a false message to the Massive? "What if I was not dead?" He asked again. 

'They _wanted_ you dead.' The thought formed without warning and without him wanting it to. He opened his eyes again, focusing them on the dark. They widened. "Did you really want me dead _that_ badly?" He asked incredulously. 

The answer that crystallized in his head was not one he wanted to ever approach or think about. It was a resounding 'YES.' 

That was more than Zim could take. Screwing his eyes shut he drew in a deep breath and let out an unearthly cry of anguish. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH_HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!_"

~~~

Half a galaxy away, Red stumbled where he stood, dropping the slushie he held unceremoniously on the floor. His two fingered hands flew up to clench at his head. "Did... did you hear that?" He gasped at Purple.

The other Tallest sipped his drink cautiously and raised a non-existent eyebrow. "Noo..." he replied. "Hear what?"

Red was silent for a moment, then he removed his hands and shook his head abruptly. "Nevermind. YOU!" He jabbed his finger in the direction of a waiter. "Bring me more slushIE!" 

~~~ 

That cry had caused more damage than he had intended. Zim whimpered, screwing his eyes shut tightly as a cold sweat broke out over his face. 'Maybe the _Tallest_ will get their wish,' he thought sullenly and with intense bitterness. 

He knew he was dying. There was nothing better than a body twisted horribly out of shape trying to repair it's self when it couldn't even move into a position where it could repair properly. Even a near indestructible Irken body would start to die if left in such a position for too long. 

He was barely aware of the voices drawing closer and closer to him. Finally they stopped, now only slightly muffled by the pile of rubble that lay upon him. 

"Zim?" Dib's voice drifted to his broken antennae. "ZIM?!" It questioned again. "Zim where are you?!"

The human sounded desperate. 

"ZIM!" He was awfully close now. And even more desperate sounding, if that were possible. 

Zim's tongue snaked out to swipe across his lips. He opened his mouth to speak... only to discover he couldn't. The only sound that would come from his mouth was a squeak that was no louder than a soft whisper. 

His eyes flew wide open again. He must have hurt his voice when he screamed. Oh NO... 

"Zim?" There were sounds of footsteps, but this time they sounded more distant, like the human was traveling away from him. "Zim where areeeee you...??" His voice was growing more distant now too. 

The alien panicked. _'Don't leave me!'_ He thought desperately. _'Don't leave me to die!'_ He struggled again despite himself, which only caused shooting, near dehabilitating pain to erupt from his side and his broken arm. He opened up his mouth to scream silently again_. 'I don't want to die!!'_

His thoughts startled him, but at the same time, he knew they were true. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to DIE. So maybe he had nothing, absolutely NOTHING left, but he didn't want to die. Not now. 

"Zim?" Dib's voice sounded closer to him again. "Where are you?" It asked. There were a few muffled crunching sounds from beyond the stuff that lay on top of him. "I _heard_ you Zim... I know you're in here somewhere."

He heard...? Zim's brow wrinkled. He hadn't thought he had managed to say anything out loud. Even so his relief was so strong that he didn't care. He licked his lips one last time and tried again to speak out loud.

This time his vocal cords did manage to kick in, and even though the voice that wavered out of him was thin and very weak sounding... it still was a voice. "Dib?" He called out in reply.

There was silence for a heartbeat of time. Then: "Oh god, Zim!" Dib sounded more than a little relieved. There was a series of very close sounding crashing noises. "Are you in the rubble, Zim?" the human asked. 

Zim struggled for a moment, but finally convinced a word to emerge. "...yes." He replied. His voice sounded tired.

Dib made another nonsense noise of relief. "Hang on a moment Zim, we'll get you out of there...!" 

Zim smiled slightly, relieved, and relaxed his neck again. Dib would help him. He had never heard such a wonderful sound before in his entire life as that human's voice... 

~~~

"Come on Gir, heave!" Dib snapped impatiently. The unburial process was going slower than he would have liked. Then again the room they were in was pretty mangled. It actually appeared to be half the size that it had been before, which meant that he had to slouch to avoid hitting his head on the broken tubes and wiring that lined the ceiling. Debris lined the sides in huge piles and everything was charred... he had no idea what kind of condition Zim would be in when they finally unburied him. As it is, it was a miracle he was still alive... 

The sick feeling set in just before one of the last pieces of wall was moved aside. It came away with one corner of it glistening and green-- the green color being something he had personally seen much too much of in his relatively short life. He wondered vaguely if Irkens had some super fast way of regenerating their blood, with the amount of Zim's he had seen in the last few days, he hoped that they did.

He instantly started thinking about far more important things when Gir and him had finally managed to heave the last major piece of wall away. 

He gasped. And retched. He couldn't help it. 

He had seen footage of car crashes before. He had seen all number of horrific bloody things on the holovid before. Nothing, though, nothing could prepare him for the sight which now lay before him. 

"Zim," He whispered. The one side of the Irken's body and face was blackened and charred. Like the fire had crept through the pieces of wall and attacked his soft and much more vulnerable body. The side of his that was on the bottom was a ghostly near white color and was twisted beyond any reasonable recognition. He was vaguely aware that the object jutting out from underneath the Irken's chest area at an impossible angle must be an arm. 

And his chest...

Zim was impaled. That was the only way he could possibly describe it. A narrow thin piece of wall seemed to travel right from in front of Zim to a point on the top half of Zim's chest and there it disappeared into his flesh. He was still breathing though, despite the object...

Gir's horrified scream jarred Dib out of his gawking. "Master!" The little robot wailed, clambering over stuff and bits of metal to wrap his stubby little arms around Zim's head. "Master is you dead?!" He cried. 

Despite the weak sound of his voice, Zim sounded quite a bit irritated and much more like his old self when he replied. "If you keep on screaming I will be," the Irken muttered grumpily. 

"Master!" Gir replied happily. 

"Gir," Zim growled back. "Be silent and help remove this WALL that has decided to take residence in the almighty chest of Zim~~" The Irken trailed off into a coughing fit.

Dib couldn't help the smile that threatened to develop on his face. Good old Zim. His smile faded abruptly as he saw the thin trail of blood that ran down from the side of Zim's mouth. He was gasping for air like a fish out of water...

"Okie dokie!" Gir replied happily. He leapt down and positioned himself, gripping the bit of metal with both hands. Grunting he pulled back on it. 

Zim tilted his head backwards and screamed as it slowly inched it's way out of his chest. Dib made his way forwards and positioned himself, preparing to help Gir, when the robot succeeded and flew backwards into Dib, the hunk of wall in his hands. They both landed in a crumpled heap. 

Dib groped about and found his hat again, replacing it back onto his head and readjusting the flashlight to focus back in on the alien. "Zim?" He asked, climbing over metal chunks and pushing some of them away as he approached. "Zim are you all right?" He stopped abruptly. "Eew man..." he breathed. 

Zim's non-broken arm and hand had traveled up to press against his chest where the metal piece had been. He wasn't sure, but it almost looked like the invader was trying to keep _stuff_... inside his body. 

Dib wasted no time. He fell to his knees in front of the Irken and instantly started struggling to remove his bag. Then came his jacket and finally his shirt. The last one he tore in two, then reached out to the Irken. As carefully as he could he spread it across the Irkens chest and around his back, then tied it at one of his sides, securing the wound. "Will it heal?" He asked worriedly once he was done. 

"Irkens heal quickly," Was Zim's swift reply. Dib noticed that the Irken's teeth were clenched and he looked like he was in severe pain. 

"What should I do with your arm?" He asked, reaching out for but not touching the broken appendage. 

Zim flopped over onto his back so that the arm was closer to the boy. "Put it into it's natural position," He ordered. "So that I can move it." 

"Move?" Dib questioned. He hesitated for a moment, then reached out. Gritting his teeth he ran his hand up the length of the arm, trying his best to stay his nauseous stomach as he felt the broken bones move and slide about underneath his fingertips. 

When he was done Zim gave him a stiff nod and jerked the entire side of his body. He did that once, twice, then the arm made an odd snapping noise and the Irken fell back again with a relieved sigh. A moment later he moved it slightly, twitching the fingers one by one. 

Dib stared. The arm wasn't necessarily as good as new, but it definitely shaped like an arm now. He made a squeaky sounding exclamation of surprise. 

"Yes, yes, you are very impressed," Zim said in response to his look. 

"What else?" Dib asked dryly, no longer surprised. 

Zim raised an eyebrow at him. "Now?" He replied. He made a gesture with his good hand down the length of his body. "Now you can help me with my broken legs." 

~~~

It took Dib quite a few minutes to help Zim struggle to repair his distorted body somewhat. Zim was fairly acidic, calling him all sorts of names during the length of it, but Dib didn't care. He figured the sarcasm stemmed from pain and left it at that. 

Finally, Zim was all fixed, or at least as much as he was going after having spent a day buried in rumble, and had a bit of his natural green color returning to his face. Dib rocked back on his heels and wiped his brow. 

"Can you stand?" Dib asked finally, as he noticed the Invader had begun to try to struggle to his feet. 

"Undoubtedly human," Zim snapped. "My legs were _broken_, not severed from my body--" At that moment his legs gave out like those of a newborn foal, and the alien crumpled forwards. 

Dib caught him. "Are you sure?" He asked, fighting to keep the smirk that threatened to join the concern in his voice and on his face. 

Zim muttered something unintelligible and scathing sounding under his breath and buried his head against the human's chest. 

Dib smiled and carefully hoisted the alien up in his arms as he got to his feet. He put him down again on a relatively bare and unbroken part of the floor and retrieved his jacket. He replaced both that and his bag and readjusted the flashlight on his head before scooping Zim up again. For his part the alien didn't even struggle, except to position himself a bit more comfortably in the human's arms. 

They made it all the way back to the exit in silence when Zim finally decided to speak. "Where are we going?" he asked curiously, as he craned his neck to see up the hole.

"To my house," Dib replied, reaching out with one hand to grip the rope he had left hanging there. It was the logical place to go. Zim couldn't very well stay here... 

He stopped when Zim visibly started in his arms, then began to struggle. "Zim?" He questioned, letting the rope go to readjust his grip on the alien. He swung his head down to peer at the alien. "What is it?" He asked, concerned.

Zim stop struggling and glowered up at him, raising one had to shield his eyes from the glare off of the flashlight beam. "You'll have to excuse me for being suspicious _DIB_," The alien replied. "But the LAST time I was anywhere near your home, HORRIBLE things happened to me!" 

"Zim..." Sighing, Dib walked away from the exit a bit, then stopped and gently put the alien down on the ground. He removed his breather so that he would look a little less strange and crouched down beside him. "I'm not going to do anything _horrible_ to you. Got that?" 

Zim's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. 

Dib held his hands wide. "I promise." He sighed again, and ran a hand through his hair before looking all about himself. The base's burnt out and destroyed walls were all he saw. "I mean, you can't stay here," he added. "... can you?" 

Zim still wouldn't reply. Instead he saw the Irken look away and glare at the ground he sat upon. 

Dib took that for a no. He reached forwards and grasped the alien by the shoulders. "Look Zim... I've come this far already." He said. "If you think I'm going to leave this place without you, than you're sadly mistaken." 

The alien's eyes flashed back to his face again, and this time his eyes held a minute amount of fear in them. He had seen that look, several months back. Zim was afraid. Of something. The look wavered and the alien looked down, towards his lap again. 

Dib's eyes narrowed. He was pretty sure he knew what it was. "Trust me," He added fervently. 

Zim's eyes shot back up and the alien glared at him again. "Zim trusts no ONE," He hissed back. 

Dib rocked back on his heels. That... kinda hurt. He had just saved the alien's life after all. Again. Not to mention SLEEPING with him. To have Zim say he didn't trust anyone... 

Dib merely shrugged and turned away, climbing back to his feet again. "Fine then," he said abruptly, forcing a cold tone into his voice. He reached the rope and tugged on it, then began to tie it around his waist. "You can stay here if you want Zim." He said blithely. "Just know that once I go, I'm not coming back here ever again." He smirked in the alien's general direction. "You can die here for all I care." He was fairly sure that without his pak, Zim wouldn't be able to scale the wall back to the outside... not with two legs that presently wouldn't support his weight. He laughed out loud. "Imagine that! Zim the ALIEN," He applied empathize to the word 'alien'. "Dying right here on earth among the humans he so dearly HATES... ah well," Cheerfully he kicked off from the floor and began to climb back up the wall. 

The noise from his feet hitting twisted metal as he climbed nearly caused him to miss the sound of Zim's voice. Nearly. But he had heard something... 

Dib stopped, swinging in one place a few feet above the ground. "What was that?" He called back cheerfully. 

"... don't." Zim repeated softly.

Dib grinned and hopped back down to the ground. "I still didn't hear you," He said in a bit of a sing song voice as he untied himself again. Now he was just being mean and he knew it, but it was a rare time that he actually had a real advantage over the alien. The feeling of power was somewhat heady. He began to walk back over to where he left him.. 

"Don't leave!" Zim yelled at him loudly as he approached, distraught. Dib watched as he balled his hands into little fists. "Horrible human, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!" 

He reached Zim at the same time as the alien completed his sentence. The alien's fists fell against him, the punches from the unbroken arm hitting him decidedly harder than the punches from the newly broken one. Dib gathered the alien up in his arms even as he bucked and fought against him, more than a little upset. 

"Shh..." Dib soothed, turning back towards the rope. "It's okay." He held the alien to himself tightly, running his hands comfortingly up and down his back. 

The alien calmed considerably as Dib walked. After a moment his arms carried up to hesitantly loop around the human's neck. His face came down to lie against Dib's neck and there it rested, the alien's trembling breaths cool and moist against his skin. 

"I don't like you," Zim muttered as the human set about re-tying the rope around his waist. As he spoke his arms tightened around Dib's neck. Despite his words, there was no way on earth he was letting the human go. 

Dib smiled to himself. "I know," he replied. "But right now I'm the closest thing to a friend you've got Zim. The faster you realize that, the better off we'll BOTH be." With that he kicked off from the ground and began to climb upwards. 

~~~


	10. Chapter 10 a

In response to feedback about the crap Zim went through in this fic-- yes, it sucks. Yes Zim suffered a lot. But I needed to put that in there. Not because I'm being horribly cruel, but because it's key to the plot. (Read : I needed a reason for Zim to act out of character in this part. -__-;)

This chapter is split into two parts because of length. (This is the short part. O_o)

~~~  
Chapter 10, part a   
~~~

He looked so uncertain there, standing in the hall. He hadn't moved much since Dib had left him outside of the bathroom door, except to get to his feet. Dib hadn't realized how incredibly dirty the little Irken was until now. His little invader boots, of which had done wonders to keep the formerly broken bones in place, were rugged and caked with dirt, and now there were shoe prints on the carpet. Likewise what remained of his clothes were absolutely filthy, and his hand had left a couple of fingerprints on the wall where he had been using it to support himself. 

As soon as Dib stepped up to him he looked up, his antennae flicking back uncertainly as he took in the human as he towel dried his hair. 

After a moment Dib made a "huh" noise, balling up the towel and tossing it behind him, back into the bathroom. He then turned back to his former rival. 

"You still react to water don't you." He said more than asked him. 

Zim inspected him silently. He didn't reply, but his antennae flicked up and then back down again. 

_'Now was that a yes or a no?'_ Dib sighed, running a hand through his damp hair. What to do? He had a very filthy and battered and decidedly silent alien getting dirt all over his hall. Finally he settled on something. "Just a moment." He said. He jogged down the hallway and into his room. After some shuffling through his dresser drawers he managed to find what he was looking for. It was one of his favorite shirts from elementary school... a shirt with a picture of a not quite smiling happy face on it. It had been too big for him then, but it should be big enough to fit the little alien, he decided. He bundled it under his arm and grabbed the smallest pair of sweat pants he could find at the same time. The pants had a draw string on them that he was sure the Irken could use to convince the clothing to fit a little bit better. 

He reentered the hallway to find Zim hadn't moved an inch. Even so he almost did a double take. Zim was the thing of his nightmares for years... when he was a child, before Zim had come to earth, he used to have re-occurring dreams of walking into the hallway at night and seeing an alien there. That was usually right before he was abducted by the otherworldly visitors and forced to endure all sorts of awful tests onboard some kind of alien spacecraft. The nightmares would leave him wide-awake and terrified and eventually even more determined to discover if there was any other life in the universe...

He shook his head ever so slightly and stepped forwards.

"Filtered water," Zim mumbled as he approached. 

Dib blinked. "What?" He questioned. 

Zim cocked his head to the side slightly. "Filtered water." He repeated. His lip curled upwards slightly. "I react to the acidity in your horribly filthy _rain_ type water, human. The filtered stuff is fine."

"Oh!" Dib exclaimed. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that before?" He half asked himself as he darted past the Irken and made his way down the stairs two at a time.

When he got back upstairs, with two bottles of water in his hands, he ushered the alien into the washroom and set about removing his clothes. He managed to do so with only a slight flush to his cheeks. "Do you... uh, want to do this?" He asked once he got to the alien's pants.

Zim shrugged. The expression on his face was completely apathetic when Dib glanced up at him. 

_'Um, all right,'_ Dib thought to himself. He forced himself to occupy his mind elsewhere as he divested Zim of his pants. 

Amazingly enough, it got far better for the human after that. All he needed to do was remove the layers of dirt, grim, charred skin, and dried blood from the alien. From his work a couple days before he didn't need to go anywhere near that particular part of the alien's body. It had survived the wreckage completely unscathed. He was also relieved to see that the part of Zim's body that so recently had a wall embedded in it had completely healed over. All that was left in it's place was a patch of skin that was a minuet shade lighter than the rest of him. 

Zim watched him out of half lidded eyes as the human washed his body with a damp rag. He wasn't sure exactly how he was supposed to be feeling. He did know one thing though, the constant battery had taken the toll on his amAZing Irken body. He felt very close to wavering where he stood and falling over. His recently broken legs - even though they were now mended - pounded and ached, demanding that he rest them. He hated filth though, and if staying upright meant getting clean he was more than willing to use EVERY LAST OUNCE of his energy to do so.

As Dib continued to wash him, the human was also relieved that the darkened charred looking patches of skin came away easily beneath the cloth, revealing new pale green skin beneath. 

"Man Zim, I knew you healed fast, but this is incredible!" He commented, a bit awed. "Look, you're almost as good as new!" 

"Mmhmmm." Zim mumbled in the affirmative. 

There was a small stretch of silence. Then: "You're being awfully quiet," Dib said as he moved to wash the alien's legs. 

Zim shrugged again. "My eyelids are heavy," He mumbled after a moment. It was the truth. 

Dib glanced up at him. "... You must be tired," He replied. He remembered that Zim had happily slept after that night months ago. _'This is great,'_ Dib thought to himself. _'I just have to tire him out and he gets much better to deal with...'_

There was a pause. Then Zim spoke up again. "I think I'm going to fall over soon." He warned. 

Dib glanced up at the alien's face, to find it the picture of seriousness. "Okay. I gotcha." He replied. He snaked a hand around the back of Zim's upper legs to support him as he continued to clean the alien. He flushed slightly when he realized that by sliding an arm around him he was really close to Zim's privates, then he looked away and deliberately forced himself not to think about it. 

Zim didn't argue with the human about holding him up. Instead he just shrugged again and placed both his hands lightly on the human's shoulders for support. 

Dib finished cleaning him and tossed the cloth into the sink, then stood up. "Are you hungry?" He asked after another pause. 

The alien looked at him oddly, then nodded slowly. 

"'Kay," Dib stood up and handed the alien the clothes he had gathered for him. "Put these on and then we'll go find you something to eat all right?" _'If Gir hasn't eaten everything already.'_ He added mentally. The alien's robot dog thing had happily followed them home earlier and had instantly attacked the refridgerator. Needless to say his sister wasn't too pleased that Gir was now going to be a new guest at their house... she was in her room at the moment and he had a feeling she wasn't going to be coming back out again for a while... 

~~~

It was a little less than a hour later when Dib had finally finished getting the alien food (he could take foods such as bread, toast and eggs... bacon... anything that sounded remotely breakfast-y...) and went about setting up a place for him to sleep that night.

After careful deliberation he decided to put him in his own room. He grabbed an inflatable mattress (Professor Membrane brand!) from the hall closet and a couple blankets. Shoving some of his stuff aside with his foot, he set it up a makeshift bed on the floor. At the same time Zim sat on his desk and looked around his room with curiosity. 

When Dib was done he turned off the light and climbed into his own bed. He watched in the deepened shadows of his room and the pitiful light given off by the glow-in-the-dark solar system above his head as Zim hopped down off of his desk and carefully climbed into the folds of the blankets on the floor. Dib smiled and turned on his side towards the room, watching as the alien settled down. 

"Am I expected to regenerate now?" Zim asked after a moment, into the darkness. "Like you?" 

Dib shrugged. "If you want," He replied. "I thought you were tired." 

Zim said nothing for a while. Then he shifted to face the human. "I am..." His eyes narrowed. "How do YOU know, FOOLISH earth creature," He began, his voice haughty. "That I am not going to attack you in your sleep? I could DISTROY you in an instant!" 

Dib blinked and was quiet for a moment. Then he shrugged again. "I don't." He replied finally. "But I don't think you will." He added. 

Zim sat up. The alien's voice was plaintive when he spoke. "But how do you KNOW?" He pressed. 

Dib shrugged again. "I guess I'll just have trust you." He said, placing a bit of empathsis on the word trust. 

Zim was completely silent. After a moment Dib tried again. "Good night Zim," He said kindly. With that he rolled over and turned his back on the alien. A few minutes after that the human's breathing had evened out, indicating that he was asleep. 

~~~

Zim couldn't sleep. Not that that was too incredibly surprising... he had spent most of his life not sleeping. But now, when he felt like sleeping very VERY badly, he found he couldn't. Instead he lay in a bed made out of native earth fabrics and stared up at the ceiling display of fake heavens. And thought. 

He didn't know what he was going to do. He was very very confused, as he had felt since his pak had decided to disengage. He was in a very bad place, he knew that much.

Again he wished his pak hadn't fallen off. The pak had effectively run his life for over 100 years now and it would know more than anything what to do in a situation like this. 

Forcing himself to focus, he shut his eyes and tried to think about what his pak would tell him to do right now. 

He frowned. Well for one it would tell him that Dib, though he made an interesting plaything, would never ever be someone he could trust enough to dwell in the same room with. It also would tell him that the human obviously had an ulterior motive for bringing him here, despite what he had said about "trust". Trust was a foolish concept. Zim trusted no one! 

So what was he going to do? His pak probably would have told him to use the human to his best advantage. Use him for all that he was worth, steal his pitiful technology and escape in a magnificent manner sometime in the very near future. 

His pak did not really understand the concept of fear. He could only think of maybe 5 or 6 times in the past all told when he truly felt honest to goodness fear for his life. One of those times had been less than a few months ago when the Dib-monkey had captured him and tied him to that horrible lab table in the basement of the very house he was currently in. 

Fear and uncertainty were unpleasant sensations. If he had his pak still, the device would wire confidence and the comforting knowledge that he will prevail despite the odds right into his organic brain. And then it would help him think up another magnificent way to get out of the situation he was in, whatever that situation might be.

Without that device, no solutions were forthcoming. He had this horrible churning feeling of dread in his stomach and it had been his constant companion since Dib had first picked him up and carried him out of his destroyed base. 

_DIB._ That was his problem really... 

... He *could* kill him...

Zim blinked into the darkness surprised that such a solution had come to him on his own without the technical help from his pak. He carefully turned the thought over in his head. Yes... yes he could kill the human wormchild. It certainly would prevent him from ending up on an autopsy table again anytime soon. He could kill him and escape... run away. Maybe he could find a place to steal some earth technology. He knew the humans had a spaceport... somewhere... 

It would be *incredibly* easy too. Grinning to himself, Zim lifted himself up from the blankets. Careful not to make a sound he crawled across the floor over to Dib's bed. After a moment of being still to make sure the human still slumbered, he stood, then peered over the side of the bed. No movement. The human must have been exhausted, he didn't even so much as stir. Smirking, Zim boosted himself up onto the covers, landing extremely lightly beside the boy. 

The human was defenseless right now. All he'd have to do was put his hands around his neck and squeeze. Dib could wake up and fight him off true, but not if he was fast enough. His one uninjured hand alone was strong enough to do it. So feeble and weak, these humans were, with their simple bodies that did not heal much if severed or broken. All he had to do was break him... break Dib...

He stared with wonder a bit of amazement at the human's peaceful vestige. How could he? He thought. All the security features from years of paranoia were still evident around the room... the bars on the windows and several locks on the door. All designed to keep people out... to keep HIM out. Yet here he was in the humans room... on invitation. Watching him when he was most vulnerable.

Instead of reaching out and strangling him right then and there, he instead reached out hesitantly, a strange sort of curiosity coming over him. He aimed his hand higher, touching the human boy's cheek. The flesh was odd to against his tapered fingers, smooth yet textured with the tiniest hairs that prickled against his skin. Zim shivered then blinked in surprise. For some reason that caused the most unexpected response to happen to his Irken body...

A bit shocked, Zim removed his hand and stared at the palm unbelievingly. Touching the human with his hand wasn't supposed to cause a response down _there_... was it? The human had touched him and helped repair him all evening and down *there* hadn't even acted up at all. Now it was... *burning* slightly. It wasn't a full body burning like it had been when he had to mate with the repulsive earth creature, but it was similar at least in feel. Completely distracted, he reached down with his other hand and poked at that part of his body though the cloth of the sweat pants Dib had given him to wear. 

Nothing happened. Huh. 

Ah well. Shrugging his thin shoulders, Zim looked back up at the human. No matter how... pleasant... the thought of maybe mating again was, it was only a distraction. He had had _enough_ of those! He reached out, prepared to go for his neck this time. 

Before he could touch him though the boy made a small grunting noise and shifted against the pillow. Zim jerked away again, as his alien heart pounding wildly as his would be victim opened his eyes.

For an instant the small human eyes focused on him and during that instant Zim saw fear flash through them. The look was fleeting though as the human recognized him. 

"Zim!" He exclaimed, sounding more than a little relieved. Then, when Zim wouldn't reply, the expression on the human's face turned suspicious. "What ARE you doing?" Dib asked sternly. 

Zim opened his mouth to speak, but no sound would come out. He should have had all sorts of excuses for himself. _'Nothing that would concern you earth stink,'_ and _'I was checking to make sure you were still ALIVE! YES!'_ For example. The alien panicked. "I. I don't--" He stammered, scrambling backwards across the covers. 

Nothing was connecting the way it used to! Zim began to hyperventilate, his eyes darting to and fro. "I--" He faltered, then turned his desperate gaze back to the humans. "It'snotwhatyouthink!" He said with a rush. His mind asked what it WAS then, at the same time he cringed at his sudden and complete lack of charismatic vocal skills. 

There was concern on the human's face. AGAIN! Zim started visibly as the human reached out to him, grasping him by his arms and pulling him against him. "It's okay," The human said. 

No... Zim was fairly sure he wasn't going to be. He didn't know what to do... he never felt anxiety like this before and now it felt like it was the only thing he felt. He let out a soft low moan of fear despite himself. 

Dib caught the noise. Concerned, he patted the alien carefully on the back. "It's okay," He said again. He yawned and shifted around to get more comfortable, taking the alien with him. "You're going to be okay." He added. He rubbed the alien's back in slow languid strokes to continue to try to reassure him. 

No... no he wasn't going to be okay, no matter what the human said. Shivering, Zim brought his head down and laid it against the human's chest in a defeatist gesture that was beginning to become very familiar to him. 

This time though, as he rested his head there he slowly became aware of the steady beating of the human's heart through the cloth that shielded his chest. 

Zim's antennae peaked upwards ever so slightly. His trembling stopped, even as the human's hand motions began to slow as Dib began to slip back into sleep. The human heartbeat... the constant double thump of it was somewhat reassuring. He wasn't quite sure if it was because it reminded him of his former base... with it's constant synchronous noises of machinery working, but it was reassuring anyway. Relaxing a slight bit, he allowed his head to fall back against the human and for a long while he just lie there, listening. After a good length of time had passed and the human had fallen asleep again, Zim closed his eyes as well. Maybe he could get a little bit of sleep after all. He was so very tired... 

~~~ 


	11. Chapter 10 b

This is in regards to the HUUUGE amount of verbal maneuvering in this part... I suffered writing it. (Oh how I suffered!) I COULD have cut out a good deal of it, and my wonderful beta J. Random Lurker gave me a great solution of how to do so, but I decided not to chop it. You will now have to suffer reading it. I'm sorry.

Oh yes... and there's a bit of sex in this part. It's r-rated material folks (no, it's not as graphic as an NC17 scene in my and my beta's opinion, which is why it didn't get cut out) If you do not feel comfortable with it, DO NOT READ IT... I don't want this taken down because someone was too stupid to heed the warnings and got all offended. -_-;

And now without further adieu... :)

~~~  
Chapter 10 - part b  
~~~

Dib faded back into consciousness far past the time when he was supposed to be in school. He blinked at his alarm clock, taking in the bright green digital numbers that cheerfully told him visually that it was 10:27 am. Still half fuzzy from sleep he wondered vaguely why he hadn't set his alarm the night before as he yawned and rolled over...

... And came face to face with his answer.

"Oh yeah," He mumbled mildly. He had slept with the enemy again. The thought alone was enough to make him smile. Ha ha...

Zim apparently didn't find that nearly as funny. The alien looked back at him sourly, his red eyes narrowed somewhat.

Well... whatever. Dib sat up in bed and yawned and stretched. "Want something for breakfast?" He asked the alien after sitting there for a moment.

Zim closed his eyes and made a noise of disgust. "Zim does not need nourishment as often as you pathetic earth creatures." He replied snobbily. His hand clenched and unclenched angrily on the pillow as he said this.

Dib looked back down at him for a moment. _'Well, guess who's as volatile as ever.'_ He thought. "You must have slept well," He said outloud mildly. Before the alien could reply he shrugged and hoped down off the bed. "Suit yourself..."

Gir was in his living room watching kiddie cartoons as he walked by... while balancing upside down on his head. Dib watched the robot's cartoons as well for a moment or so until he decided he had had enough and continued his way into the kitchen.

It was while he sat at the kitchen table, eating his breakfast (while keeping half an ear out for Zim in his bedroom above,) that he decided what he was going to do now that he wasn't going to school today.

He wanted to run a couple diagnostics on Zim. Just non-abrasive ones... a couple blood samples would probably do it. He actually really was curious to know. His many years of research indicated that for all intents and purposes Zim should have been dead by now. He wasn't sure exactly how it worked but it was pretty obvious from what he had found out, that the little alien should not be alive. Yet he was. Why? Was it because of the miscarriage? Or was it because he still had residue human DNA in his body? Why hadn't Zim died? The answer had to be in the alien's bio-systems somewhere...

He finished eating his toast and brushed his hands off on his pants. Now... if he could just get the alien to cooperate...

When he returned to his room, the alien was awake and standing on top of his desk, inspecting a map of the galaxy he had hanging on his wall very closely. He jerked away as the human walked into the room, his ruby red eyes wide. Those eyes narrowed again when he saw who it was though.

"I'm BORED, earth stink," Zim announced, folding his arms across his chest and tapping one of his little feet.

Dib grinned at him. "Good," he said. He walked over to the desk and lifted Zim down off of it, only to have the alien struggle out of his arms and leap down to the floor himself. "You can help me with something then." He added, raising one of his eyebrows at the ET.

"_Help_ you?" Zim looked up at him suspiciously. "With what?" He asked.

Dib made an airy gesture with one of his hands. "Oh nothing much. I just want to run some tests..."

He knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment the words left his month. Zim went from looking suspicious to all out fearful. His eyes went wide and his antennae fell right flat out against his skull.

"I meant non-intrusive tests," Dib tried to explain quickly, holding out his hands in attempts to placate the alien. "Like blood samples and stu-"

"I knew it!" the alien exclaimed, thrusting a finger at the boy accusingly. "I KNEWW it! This was all a rouse wasn't it? WASN'T IT?"

Dib's mouth fell open. "Zim, no!" He replied. "I'm not-"

"You just wanted an excuse!" Zim ranted. He leapt onto the bed and stood above the human. "An excuse to get ZIM into your filthy smelly house-thing and do horrible EVIL tests on me!"

"ZIM!" Dib shouted back. "Listen to me!" He made a lunge for the alien, but Zim leapt back from his reach.

"NO!" The alien exclaimed, pressing himself up against the wall behind him. "NO! I will not listen to your LIES anymore, DIB!" He spat. "You won't be defiling the body of THIS Irken Invader!" With that he leapt down off of the bed and ran from the room.

"ZIM I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU!" Dib shouted after him. "... Dammit...!" Cursing himself for the lack of foresight (he should have KNOWN that the alien would react this way), he took off after him.

He sacked Zim in the hall right before the bathroom. In one fumbling move he managed to turn them both over so that the alien lay beneath him, Zim's arms caught in both of his hands and pinned against his sides. He applied enough pressure he thought to at least keep the alien immobile, but a sharp cry of pain from the Irken told Dib to take the pressure off of one of his arms a slight bit. Only a bit mind you...

"Stop it," Dib said sternly. When the alien continued to struggle violently, he sat back in order to shake him somewhat. "STOP IT. LISTEN to me..."

Zim would have none of that. Shutting his eyes tightly, he tilted his head back. "GIR!" He shouted. "_GIR!_ Get up here and help _defend_ your master!"

"YaaAYYYY!" Gir exclaimed happily from the livingroom downstairs. The sound of little metal feet running up the stairs could be heard a second later. Dib's head jerked up and he watched as Gir started down the hallway at the top of the stairs, pink tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. He almost let Zim go in preparation of being run into, when Gir changed direction at the last second.

"FISHIES!" The robot exclaimed, running into the bathroom. The door slammed closed behind him. A moment later the sound of running bath water could be heard.

"Oookay," Dib muttered, a slightly incredulous look on his face. He knew that he really shouldn't be all that surprised by Gir's antics, but...

Zim had stilled beneath him and was now looking up at him with a slight smirk on his face. "Eh," He said. "You get used to it." He paused. "Now where were we? Oh YES!" Suddenly he began to struggle again, driving up against Dib in a vain attempt to get away. "I will not be subject to your horrible tests HUMAN!" the alien exclaimed vigorously. "Let Zim GO!"

"NO Zim!" Dib gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep the alien down. "Will you just listen for a sec?" He finally snapped, frustrated.

Amazingly enough, after a couple more twists, Zim stilled a bit and gave him a extremely suspicious look.

"I'm not going to test you if you don't want me to," Dib explained, exasperated. "I just wanted to find out why you are still functioning without your pak." He paused. "I wanted to make sure that you were okay and-"

"YOU'RE LYING!" Zim yelled in his face.

Dib shut his eyes and waited for his ears to stop ringing. As calmly as he could he counted to three in his head... because he was coming very close to yelling back nonsense and he had to stay in control of the situation.

He opened his eyes again. Zim had stilled completely and was giving him a decidedly uncertain look. "Well?" He asked.

"I'm trying to think of a reply that doesn't involve shouting," Dib replied, his voice very dry. _'Or strangling you,'_ he added in his head. "Fine," He said after a moment. He let Zim go suddenly and sat up. "Go then."

The Irken scrambled out from under Dib and began to back away slowly.

"Just remember," Dib added after a moment. "That you're not in disguise anymore." Zim paused and turned his head back towards the human. "I mean yes, humans are stupid, but eventually SOMEone is going to notice."

Zim snorted. "_I_ am an Irken Invader," He said. "My hiding abilities are _incredible_. No one will find me." He added smugly.

"Oh... I don't doubt that," Dib replied. "But did you ever consider all the security devices us humans have? They're everywhere Zim. Even places that you can not see. Eventually SOMEONE will see you on them and then..." He ran a thumb across his neck. "You're dead." He shrugged and climbed to his feet, then turned away.

Zim hadn't thought about that. Dib heard rather than saw the Irken utter a short soft cry. "No...!"

_'I'm getting good at this,'_ Dib thought to himself smugly. He turned back around to see Zim stumble back against the hallway all and slump into a sitting position. He watched as the alien grabbed both of his antennae and yanked them down below his face, then tilted his head back, clearly agitated.

Dib sighed. "I don't know why it's so _hard_ for you to believe me," He said, looking and feeling a little bit irritated. Zim jerked his head up and stared at the human. "Haven't I proven myself yet?" He asked. "I _saved_ your life!" He punctuated each word with a jab of his finger. "Twice! Three times if you count that entire heat-mess-thing!"

"That means NOTHING!" Zim snapped back. The alien leapt to his feet again, and he glowered up at the human, his little hands balled into fists. He stomped up to the human and poked him in the chest angrily. "Don't think I've forgotten DIB," He hissed. "All the times you've tried to kill me in the last four YEARS. You TIED... me! _ZIM_ to an autopsy table and then you wouldn't let. Me. Go. I told- I BEGGED you to let me go... and you WOULDN'T," The alien's eyes flashed angrily. "So don't just expect me to suddenly FORGET..."

He was close enough to touch. Working with that, Dib reached out and grasped the alien by his upper arms. Zim was so angry that he literally vibrated in his hands... that is until he jerked away violently. "Don't-!" He began. "Touch. ME!" He spat. "Don't even THINK you can put your hands on me without MY _PERMISSION_!"

The corner of Dib's mouth quirked ever so slightly as he looked at Zim as he stood in front of him, half hunched over with rage and breathing heavily. For some reason, which probably had something to do with hidden sadistic tendencies, he wanted to provoke the alien further. "Can I touch you?" He asked after a moment, amusement shining in his eyes.

"Ye- NO!" Zim shouted. "Wretched HUMAN!" He seethed angrily, bringing up balled fists. "You think you can make a fool out of ZIM?"

"Zim." Dib sighed, his smirk fading. He held out his hand again placidly. "Zim... I was going to let you go."

It was like Zim's strings had been cut. The alien deflated suddenly and he stumbled slightly before catching himself and staring up at the human in complete shock. "What?" He sputtered.

"I was going to right after school," Dib continued, surprised that he had finally gotten through to him. "And then I got home from school to find that Gaz had already done it." He stepped closer to the alien, his hand still outstretched. Zim didn't move, just continued to stare at him. "... May I touch you?" Dib asked again after a moment.

The alien's brow wrinkled. "I- why?" He asked finally, confusion evident in his voice and on his face.

Dib shrugged. "I just want to I guess." He said.

"I- okay..." The alien still looked confused. Dib hesitantly touched the alien's cheek, cupping it slightly. He held it there for a moment then stroked his thumb up and down the alien's cheek comfortingly.

Zim surprised Dib by sliding his eyes closed and shivering. After a moment his eyes reopened. "Why?" The alien repeated, the look on his face pleading.

"Why what?" Dib asked softly.

"Why would you let me go?" He asked, still very confused. "Our game..."

"Has been over a lot longer than you think," Dib said. He brought his other hand up to gently lay it on the other side of the creature's face.

"How could I hurt you?" Dib continued after a moment, when it became apparent that all Zim was going to do was stare at him in bewilderment. His voice barely above a whisper as he continued. "You're my reason for living. I spent my entire LIFE waiting for you to come. And now that I have you, you expect me to just... KILL you and what? Go on with my life?"

His words hung thickly in the air. Finally, Zim nodded ever so slightly. "Yes..." He said, his voice very small.

Dib tilted his head to the side. It was his turn to be inquisitive. "Why?" He asked.

"I- I am not like you," Zim stuttered. " I am an Irken Invader..." For once his voice didn't ring with pride as he said that. "I came here to destroy you, not to befriend you! What about your planet? Your _people_?"

Dib snorted softly. "My people don't really care about me much- incase you haven't noticed," He replied dryly. "You know we're more alike than you may think Zim," He added carefully.

"You..." Zim nearly stumbled where he stood as the human's words set in. He stared at him with wide-eyed trepidation. He KNEW. In that horrible instant he knew that Dib KNEW. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. He shut his eyes and his tongue darted out to touch his lips nervously. "No..." He whispered.

The thumb glided over his cheek again. "Zim?" Dib pressed gently after a moment.

"I- he - they... they tried to kill me," Zim choked out finally. He didn't open his eyes. He didn't want the human to see...

"Who did?" Dib questioned. "Your leaders?"

"Yes..." The wretched feeling of realization was too strong. He wanted to jerk away, he wanted to escape... by Irk, it felt like he was buried again, he couldn't breathe~~!

Instead of turning around and running away he found himself falling forwards and being wrapped in the human's arms. It was a position he had found himself in far too often recently and again he couldn't find the energy to pull away. He gasped against the soft folds of the human's shirt, struggling to keep himself from breaking down. He had to retain at least a bit of his dignity. "I didn't- I wanted to prove to them- I could DO this. I could escape that horrid JOB and be an elite Irken Invader. Again. I didn't WANT to- to..." He let out a shuddering breath and tried to bury his head deeper against the folds of the human's shirt. His stomach churned with fear and despair. Why was he telling the human this? Why?

Because he was confused and he hurt. "I want my pak back," Zim whimpered finally. "My pak told me what to do... it would TELL me what to do. I don't think I can live without it- I can't - I _can't_-_!_"

"Shh..." The human murmured softly. Tightening his grip on the alien he brought them down so that they were kneeling on the carpet of the hall. Then the reassuring back stroking had started again. "You can live without it," He added after a moment. "How about this..." He pulled back and smiled down at the alien. "Your new mission is to live among human's for a while. Just relax. Enjoy yourself. Think of it as a special reward vacation or something." He paused. "Think you can do that for a bit?" He asked.

Zim was silent and still for a long while. Then finally his little clawed hands flexed against his shirt and he nodded ever so slightly.

"Good," Dib said pleasantly. He continued to rub the alien's back... at least until the sound of enthusiastic splashing from the bathroom distracted him.

"Fishies!" Gir exclaimed from beyond the bathroom door. "I gots you! I GOTS YOU FISHIES!" There were more splashing noises.

Dib stopped completely and let out a little "snirk" sound of laughter. He couldn't help it. Good ol' Gir...

Zim smiled against the human's chest. The smile quickly faded a bit to be replaced with a bit of a concerned expression.

The horrible... *burning* feeling thing was back. It had been back ever since the human had first touched his cheek and, save for a moment or so when he was in too much mental agony to worry about it, it had gotten progressively worse ever since. He shifted a bit uncomfortably in the human's arms, trying to relieve the pressure somewhat. This was beginning to get ridiculous. He just wished he could scratch...

Dib caught his shuffling and pulled away slightly. "Zim?" He questioned.

"I- it, eh, burns," The alien mumbled against his chest. "A bit."

"What?" Dib questioned. He drew the alien away from his chest so that he could look him in the eye. "What was that?"

Zim studied the ground off to his side, frowning pensively... until he realized that Dib just may be his solution. He smiled... then grinned.

"You don't mind touching me?" Zim asked, his eyes glinting and he craned his neck to peer up at the human.

Dib blinked. "Er... no...?" He replied, more than a little confused. Okay, he had a slight idea of what Zim could mean... but he couldn't possibly...?

Evidently he did. Zim reached out, grabbing one of the human's hands and bringing it down towards his abdomen. "Then touch me." He said with a smirk.

Dib made an odd squeaking sound, then jerked his hand away and scrambled backwards away from the alien until he hit a wall. "I- I uh, wow..." He stuttered. He shook his head slightly, then stared at Zim in shock. "You want me to- um...?" He began, visibly flustered.

The look on Zim's face was positively evil. "And maybe a little bit of this..." He sat back on his heels and thrust his hips forwards towards the human a couple of times. "Too."

Dib went sheet white and then flushed a deep red. "You can't be serious," He muttered, turning his head away in embarrassment.

"Oh I assure you, human, I am VERY serious." Zim said. The alien got to his feet and marched over to him. Dib watched, wide eyed, as the alien stood above him, then sat, settling down over his hips. His arms threaded around the human's neck and pushed his own hips back so that they rested right on top of Dib's groin. "It would certainly make my stay here more... pleasant." He purred.

That settled that then. After staring at Zim at shock for another second or so, Dib made up his mind. "Bedroom," He choked out. He scrambled to his feet, taking the alien with him.

Somehow Dib managed to get them both into the bedroom, and he shoved the door shut behind with his foot. A couple more steps and they both fell against the covers in an awkward jumble of arms and legs.

"Okay, okay," Dib replied, a bit irritably. Zim had began to thrust against him rather wantonly, which was making maneuvering even more difficult. Finally he managed to get Zim detached from him and somewhat laid out on the covers before he crawled onto the bed after him. Then the alien latched onto him again, grabbing him by his arms and pulling him up against him. He groaned with the contact.

Dib wrenched away again, pulling back far enough that he could look the alien in the eye. "Are you sure?" the human asked him carefully. "Absolutely, positively, not-going-to-freak-out-on-me-when-this-is-over SURE?" He pressed.

"Yes already," Zim replied impatiently. Again as motivation, he grabbed the human's wrist and thrust his hand down towards his pants.

"Alright fine," Dib mumbled. He didn't need any more encouragement than that. Pulling the alien against him, he slipped a hand beneath the waist band of the other's pants.

It took relatively little time for him to find what he was looking for.

He ran a finger up and down the alien's slit, smiling as the alien in his arms stiffened, then shivered, tremors running up and down his smaller body. Dib could feel Zim's claws tighten on his arms slightly before he relaxed again with a whimper, a plea to continue welling up from his throat.

The human did so by thrusting his hand even further down and flattening his hand to palm the warm softer flesh of Zim's not so alien sex. He could feel the flesh expanding slightly under hand as well as growing warmer, assumably waiting and preparing for entry from the alien it had imprinted.

Except that Dib had no intention of entering the waiting warmth... no matter how much he wanted to. Memories of three months ago and much more recently the miscarriage of the worm/smeet children had occurred to him on the way to the bedroom, effectively killing his mood. He didn't have any protection anywhere to use and there was no way he was going to risk seeing something like that again...

Instead he figured he'd make the little alien happy. It was what he wanted after all. Though, honestly, he had no idea _how_ they went from talking about disappointing things to wanting to fuck... go figure. If it meant that the alien was willing to trust him... FINALLY, he was willing to run with it. A sexual relationship was like a friendship relationship... kinda sorta...

Zim had begun to buck against him in encouragement and in response Dib began to rub his palm up and down the length of alien flesh, enjoying the soft sounds it caused him to make. After a moment he began to poke and prod about the warm interior, then withdrew, his nimble fingers drawing circles around the outside. He then noticed a slick substance had begun to leak from the interior...

Huh. That was something he HADN'T noticed when he had sex with Zim the first time. He would have withdrawn his fingers to inspect them, but he had a feeling Zim would throttle him if he stopped now. As it was the alien was beside himself, gasping and sobbing for more as his clawed fingers flexed rhythmically on Dib's arms.

Dib dug deeper, thrusting his fingers further into the warm passageway, then out again. He began to stroke harder and faster, and by the noises the alien was making he knew that he was probably nearing his peak. Zim began to thrash about too, the moaning noises coming from his throat sounding like choked sobs. If it wasn't for the randomly interjected words of "more!" and "horriblemeatcreature- don't _stop_!" he would have thought he was hurting him or something.

Gritting his teeth, he threw his arm around the Irken's body, holding him against him to prevent him from flailing so much as his hand continued it's explorations. He pressed down against the hot flesh, then stroked upwards once, twice, fingertips flicking, trying to touch every place possible at once. Zim stiffened against him then, and he tossed his head back with a keening whine. Dib stopped moving his hand and just held it there, over the flesh, as it pulsed hotter than it ever had before. He watched Zim as the alien twitched, his face so taunt and shuttered that he looked like he was in actual physical pain, not pleasure. After a moment he relaxed again and collapsed rather bonelessly against Dib.

"Mmm..." The alien murmured. The look on his face now resembled that of a cat who had just eaten a canary- he looked *very* pleased.

"You liked that?" Dib questioned, smiling as he removed his hand.

Zim nodded, his eyes half closed languidly as he laid back against the human. "Oh yeeeessss..." He sighed.

Dib chuckled.

The next couple moments passed in complete calm, except for movement from Dib, as the human casually looked at his hand, sniffed at the clear liquid that covered it and then shrugged and wiped it off on the blankets. He then went back to holding the alien, his eyes half closed. He could get used to this...

They couldn't have been like that for more than a couple minutes when Zim sat up suddenly. "HEY!" He exclaimed. He turned a suspicious look to the human. "I thought you were supposed to do something too." He said, frowning.

"Mmm?" Dib raised an eyebrow at him.

Zim glowered and muttered something about human stupidity under his breath. Then he thrust his hips forwards a couple times. "Like that?" He added.

Dib blushed and groaned slightly, bringing his now clean hand up to hold it over his face. "I don't know _where_ you learnt that," He muttered.

Now that the human wasn't looking, Zim pounced on him. Dib let out a surprised squeak and rolled with it and ended up flat on his back with an alien straddling his hips. Again.

"From you of course..." Zim replied happily. He then paused and thought, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "And the learning channel. I learn all SORTS of things on the learning channel..." Grinning he settled back on the human's hips, then frowned as he realized that their clothes were in the way. "'Come on earth stink!" He said, reaching out and fumbling for the bottom of the human's shirt. "Let's do the- FUNKY CHICKEN!" He continued.

Dib raised both of his eyebrows up at the alien. "Zim you're really starting to worry me- hey!" He protested suddenly. He grabbed for the alien's hands, which had managed to slip up his shirt. "Zim... Zim wait a moment. Don't you think this is a bad idea?" He asked.

Zim stopped, or at least stalled, and blinked at him. "Why?" He asked, curiously. He wrenched one of his hands free and went back to fumbling for the human's clothes.

"Remember your pak?" Dib tried. At the same time he was trying to fumble the alien away from his clothes.

Zim made a noise of protest as he found both of his wrists restrained again. "I have nothing else to loose," He replied. He managed to wrestle both of his hands free and dove in again enthusiastically.

Now Dib was trying to get the Irken's nimble fingers away from his pants. "Okay, er, smeets!" He tried desperately.

Zim actually stopped moving on his own and blinked at him.

"You actually think I can get pregnant again?" He asked, incredulously.

Dib looked confused. "Well yeah..." He replied. "I mean you have a-a vagina, and..."

Zim tilted his head back and laughed out loud. And kept on laughing. Dib stilled and stared up at him. In all honestly, despite all of his recent brave words about trust and friendship, being straddled by an evilly laughing Zim was a little bit disconcerting...

"Zim?" Dib tried nervously after a moment.

"Foolish human," Zim chuckled, bringing his gaze down to meet Dib's. "That means nothing." He smirked and brought his face really close to the boy's. "Irkens can only GET pregnant once every sixty years. We have to be in _heat_ to get pregnant. My next heat isn't due for another sixty years, so..."

"And what do you call this?" Dib asked. His voice cracked a bit at the end. Zim had just turned around and found his organ, and was happily massaging it _through_ his pants, (seeing as he hadn't quite managed to get them off of him yet.)

"This?" Zim asked. He withdrew his hand and pushed his body back, rocking his hips against the human's. He ground down against the human's sex, hard.

"Oh- oh god..." Dib stuttered, his jaw going slack.

"This is me ZIM! Scratching an itch." The alien replied blithely. "With your help of course. We've done an INCREDIBLE job so far... shall we continue?" He asked. He leaned forwards and grinned wickedly at the human.

Dib stared back at him then gulped. "Er..." He stuttered. Zim grinned and pushed down against him again, smirking as that caused the human to shudder.

"Weeeelll earthstink?" He encouraged silkily, sticking his hand under the human's shirt and running it persuasively up and down his skin. "Shall we?"

Dib shut his eyes. Screw responsibility. "... Sounds good," He finally managed.


	12. Chapter 11

As I endeavor to continue a fic that I abandoned over two years ago, I wish to warn you. My style of writing may be different. My grasp of the characters might be off. You may very well dislike this part. Or you may like it. If you don't like it however, I ask a small favor of you… to please consider Finale completed as of the end of Chapter 10. For the rest of you… on with the show? ;)

(Note on Chapter 11 – Half of this was written in November of 2003, when I stopped writing. The other half was written recently. I tried to seamlessly incorporate both old and new prose.)

* * *

Chapter 11

Year 1, Months 4-6

The 'honeymoon' was over almost as soon as it began. Dib skipped out on another day of school to stay home in his room the entire time with Zim, (his once sworn enemy and now very eager lover,) and have sex no less than 8 times in a row. Dib was very tired and sore by the end of it, but he was sated and happy too.

After that day Gaz would have none of it. He assumed she was still pissed off over the fact that Gir had to stay over too- and why she contacted their dad and made him tell Dib, (over the holodad), to go back to school. He also got the "an educated adult is a happy adult!" lecture, which was one he thought the good professor reserved for Gaz only.

So he had to go back. Not that he particularly wanted to, he was quite happy to remain in the house with Zim. The little alien was incredibly horny, nearly constantly, and Dib found that to be both a blessing and a curse. At least he was getting some, even if his body ached in protest every time he tried to use it for non-sexual activities… like walking.

Having sex a lot also stopped most of Zim's complete boredom at having nothing to do, which in turn prevented the alien from getting himself into trouble…

* * *

When Dib did return to school, he decided to convince Zim to go with him. After all he couldn't very well leave him alone. He had nightmarish thoughts of the alien running off and getting himself captured. Or worse. Luckily Zim seemed fine with the idea of returning to earth school, to the human's intense relief.

He was lucky that he had a copy of Zim's disguise in the basement. He had collected it years before and the circumstances had been rather amusing. Zim had lost it when he had gotten into a fight with a hobo while walking Gir, and Dib had given the hobo money in exchange for the disguise, after the alien had run off screaming, of course. Everyone had benefited.

The wig and contacts still fit the Irken, though Zim complained bitterly about the lenses being scratchy. Dib told him that they'd stop by an eye lens place on the way home from school that day and look into ordering replacements.

Dib also wanted to stop by a costume shop and look into perhaps making a disguise for Gir... not that it really mattered that they had a ROBOT, Gir was stupid enough to pass for a specially made malfunctioning earth copy, but Gir wanted to be WALKED... as a DOGGIE, as well as go partying as a doggie and having no doggie suit was seriously beginning to cramp the little robot's style. Since Dib was sick of cleaning up after Gir when the little guy pitched fits, he was willing to do almost anything. Including dismantling the damned thing, but he knew that would upset Zim. So he didn't. Gaz was coming close to dismantling the robot too, and he had been sure to tell Zim that he had no control over the things that Gaz did...

Over the next week, Dib watched with worried eyes as Zim changed ever so slightly and right in front of his eyes.

Behavior-wise, the alien seemed to go through phases, one moment he would be perfectly loud and happy, especially if he had just gotten an answer right in class or something, but more often than not he was much quieter than he had been before. Quiet and thinking and much less likely to spout off complete nonsense.

Dib supposed he should be happy... Zim made sense now and he was much more lucid. The insane ranting had been reduced to very occasional lapses in regular conversation and they didn't last very long. He assumed that Zim's pak had been more at fault for the alien's behavior than he had previously thought, and was also responsible for making him mostly insane. Still he hadn't expected such a drastic change. In class Dib would often watch the alien as he stared out the window... his chin propped in his now ungloved hands, his booted feet that didn't touch the floor gently swinging back and forth beneath his chair. He wondered what the alien was thinking then as he watched the birds go by and the squirrels hop about the school yard. He hoped whatever it was, it was at least somewhat pleasant…

Even though he was fairly sure it wasn't. He had never done anything like it before, but he kept on trying to think of what he'd do if he was in the alien's 'shoes'. He figured, despite the constant sexual activity, Zim didn't feel too incredibly comfortable in his present circumstances. How could he? He had lost everything in the space of a week. Everything. And now he depended on his former enemy for his very survival. Dib knew if the situation were reversed HE wouldn't be so happy either. Trust Zim? Yeah right.

As for himself, despite the worrying, he was having a somewhat good time of it. His life was much less stressful now that he no longer had to worry about Zim taking over the planet. He just had to worry about the alien's mental health, and that was a lot easier to do and didn't lead to people dying… at least not yet anyway. And, for the very first time in his life people in his classes were paying attention to him as well. A couple of the more intellectual students actually said hi to him in the hallways. Girls gave him shy smiles. It baffled Dib. He wondered why he had never noticed that before. He finally decided, one day when he looked at himself in the mirror of the boy's washroom, that his popularity was because he nearly constantly had a smile on his face now. His last appointment with Ms. England confirmed it, he was much happier now. Though he refused to give her the satisfaction of knowing why he was so different now… heck he almost refused to believe it himself.

But deep down he knew the reason. It was because of Zim.

Zim, who followed him everywhere, faithfully, to school during the day, home again at night. Zim, who ate dinners at Dib's table and slept at night in Dib's bed. The spry little alien did other things in Dib's bed too.

And the bed wasn't the only place Zim chose to do it in… Zim wanted to have sex everywhere. It was about the only thing the alien got excited about anymore.

Yes, ever since Zim learned that the human could stimulate him and make him feel really good, or have sex with him and make him feel even better, the alien couldn't get enough of the human. The same applied for the latter... every time Zim walked by Dib at school, the boy would find himself fighting to calm his lower extremities. It was already bad enough that he was 14 years old and in grade 9, and at the prime of his life for such a thing to happen but this was a little bit ridiculous. He picked up wearing baggy pants and long shirts just to prevent the knowledge of the fact that he had problems controlling himself under wraps. Even so he was beginning to wonder if there was any point... he and Zim had almost gotten caught on several occasions. Once they _had_ been caught in fact, but it had been okay, as it was Gaz who had done the unintentional catching and she still didn't care. Well, beyond some really biting remarks about how incredibly gross that was and that if they were going to fuck they could damn well do it upstairs in the bedroom... not in the livingroom...

They did it everywhere during the couple weeks at school. The first time was in the bathroom. Dib had needed to relieve himself and was just finishing when Zim walked in, wild eyed and panting. He had thrown his arms around Dib's neck and rubbed up against him, and making an odd purring growl in the back of his throat. That had been all the convincing Dib had needed.

They had done it in a toilet stall, Dib's hands and arms bracing them up against the wall, thrusting as the alien straddled him and just held on. They did it behind the bleachers in the Gym when there was no classes right then, and behind a bookshelf in the library. They did it on the roof, and in the boiler room. They did it in a janitor supply closet and had nearly freaked when the Janitor had opened the door on them. Luckily he was of the unobservant type and had just grabbed something quickly from the front of the closet and left so that the panicked and still boys could return to what they were doing before.

They never kissed... apparently Gir had kissed his master once, and the experience had been so unpleasant that Zim had developed a bit of a fear of the act. Instead Zim would spend their "sessions" with his head buried in Dib's shirt or neck, only throwing his head back when he climaxed, his face screwed up into an expression of exquisite torture and his teeth digging into his lower lip as he fought not to scream. Afterwards they would clean up and walk away from each other, casually, pretending that nothing happened.

Dib waited in dread for the day that some jerky football jock caught on. But for some reason or another, he was more concerned for Zim's safety than his own. Zim, without his pak, was defenseless now, and one of the smallest kids in the school to boot. What if some idiot decided to beat the alien up and his wig fell of? What if someone actually decided to be intelligent enough to put two and two together and label Zim as an alien?

What if...? He could loose him... forever...

Huh. Maybe he really did care for the little guy after all.

* * *

There was something missing. It picked at Dib as the weeks wore on, bothering him like an itch he couldn't scratch, whispering tendrils of uneasiness into his mind. It finally occurred to him about a month from the date that Zim's base first exploded.

It surprised him, but it made sense. Zim had his pride. And, for some reason, Dib missed that in him. Dib could still see tiny remnants of what Zim used to be from time to time. It spark in his eyes every so often when he talked to the alien. Zim would get indignant and Dib would be sure he was about to have a headache-producing fight on his hands, then defeated look of sorts would cross the alien's face and he would look away. The argument would be over. If he pressed the Irken on it, Zim would merely shrug and pretend it wasn't important. Or tell him he forgot what the argument was about.

It happened late at night the most of all. Usually after they had finished off yet another round of mind blowing sex and they had finally caught their breath. Right before Dib was just about to fade into sleep he would see the spark. Zim's eyes would narrow and he would look around the room. When Dib asked him what it was, Zim would shuffle about uncomfortably before replying that it was nothing and nestling his head against Dib's chest like he usually did before falling asleep himself.

Then there came the night when he couldn't find Zim at all. He wasn't in the bedroom. Bathroom, livingroom, Gaz's room, he even went so far as to check his lab downstairs. Finally, frantic, he came to the living room and picked up Gir, interrupting the little robot's TV watching time.

"Gir!" He held the robot by his metal shoulders and shook him. "Have you seen Zim?"

Gir smiled. "Mmmmhmmm..." He said.

Dib shook him again. "Where, Gir, where?" He asked.

Gir pointed up. "He's gone..." He lowered his voice to become a bit more spooky than it usually was. "Over the staaaarrrrsss..." He said.

Dib dropped the robot and stared at him long and hard. The robot was impervious... grinning up at him and humming to himself as he went back to watching TV.

Oh God, what if he left the house? Visions of the alien captured danced through his head as he grabbed his jacket and ran out the door.

He stopped short at the edge of the yard. Blinking, he looked up and stared at the sky. Stars. _Over the stars… _

He slowly he turned back around and looked up at his roof.

Sure enough the darkened outline of the little alien stood out against the haze of the city light. The alien's head was back as he sat peering up at the night sky.

Dib blinked and trudged back into the house. He made his way up to the attic and finally the doorway that he had installed a couple years ago to get to the roof easier. He opened the door cautiously to be confronted with the little alien's backside.

"Zim?" He questioned softly as he shut the door behind himself and approached the still form.

Zim didn't reply or look away from where he sat gazing up at the night's sky, though his antennae did flick back slightly in acknowledgement.

Dib cautiously sat down beside his little alien lover. He looked up at the same place Zim was looking at.

"Home?" He asked after a drawn out moment of silence.

Zim's antennae flicked ever so slightly again. After a moment the alien nodded. "Yes." He replied, his voice ending in a hiss. He brought his chin forwards to rest them on his knees.

Dib glanced at the alien out of the side of his face. He gave him an appraising look. God, Zim looked really down and out. He grimaced and looked back out at the stars.

"I'm sorry." He tried.

Zim snorted. "Hardly YOUR fault human."

Dib blinked. He turned and looked at Zim again. The alien hadn't moved.

"You called me human," Dib said after a moment.

Zim raised his head. He blinked, then glanced up at the human. "I suppose I did." He said. He sounded like he didn't really care.

"And you're speaking in first person!" Dib stared.

Zim shrugged. He went back to looking at the stars.

Oh here we go again with the shrug and ignore. Dib sighed, feeling more like an old man at that moment than a young teenager. He looked back up at the night sky.

The minutes crept by. Neither one of them moved, save for Dib's hair occasionally ruffling in the slight breeze.

"What are you thinking, alien?" Dib asked after a moment. There was no animosity to his voice when he called Zim an alien, merely a statement of fact, but he knew Zim caught the statement by the slight flicker of his antenna.

He also didn't think Zim would actually reply. But after a moment the reply came.

"… Zim wants to go home." He said so softly that Dib almost didn't catch it.

Dib felt a horrible wrenching sympathy for the small invader. Zim truly was an orphan now. Stuck here, without his base… without any of his technology, he may never see his people again.

He wasn't sure if it was possible for Zim to look anymore depressed.

Suddenly an idea occurred to Dib. Maybe it would work. Just maybe. It was worth a shot…

"Your base…" He began.

Zim turn his head slightly.

Dib considered for a moment before continuing. A slow grin spread out over his face. Yes… yes! It might just work! "We could try to fix some of your technology if you wanted. I still have the remains of the Tak ship in my garage… I can't get it up again without the CPU, but with your knowledge and the remains of your base, I'm sure we could get something working." He was talking faster now as he thought of it, considering the possibilities. "If we get something going, and I'm sure we can, we can even start the repairs on your base and everything! You'll be up and working again in no time!"

Zim was staring at him now, his red eyes wide with amazement. "…You mean that?" He asked a bit incredulously. "You would do that? For me?" He looked more animated than Dib could remember in recent history.

Dib nodded eagerly. "Hell yeah! It'd be fun!"

Zim seemed to consider that for a moment. Then he looked back at the human again, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Waitaminute..." He began, thrusting his finger at Dib. "What's the catch?" Those hands got placed on hips. "I hardly expect YOU would help restore MY base for nothing Dib-human. Even you're not that nice."

Dib blinked, then sighed. He should have expected this. "Zim... there is no catch." He said slowly with infinite patience. He spread his hands wide to prove his sincerity. "I want to help..." He considered for a moment... then reached out, tugging the alien to come towards him. After another moment's hesitation, Zim willingly crawled into his lap, settling there and Dib wrapped his arms around him. The human tilted his head back and inspected the sky for a moment, taking in the stars. There were so many of them…

"Well," he said, after a lengthy amount of time had passed. "There is one thing you can do for me..."

Zim twitched in his arms. "What?" The alien asked, his voice muffled a bit against the folds of his shirt.

Dib gently rubbed the alien's back, something he had learned worked wonders to calm the alien. "I would like to take a small blood sample." He winced as Zim stiffened against him. "It's only a blood sample. Nothing more Zim." He pulled back enough to look the alien in the eyes, taking in that his red eyes which were wide and somewhat frightened looking. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said each word with a large amount of finality. "I promise. I just want to know if you're all right. Okay?" Actually the only reason why he hadn't taken a blood sample already, seeing as it took about .5 seconds to prep a needle, was that he was afraid of Zim getting so horribly mad at him that chaos would break loose and the alien would leave.

Zim drew in a deep breath. Then another. Then the alien reached up and gripped his collar, yanking him close. Uncertain, Dib stared into the alien's narrowed red eyes. After a moment of glaring, Zim spoke through his teeth. "I'd like to tie you to a table and see how you like it, human," he hissed.

The response was so unexpected that Dib actually threw back his head and laughed. "Is that what this is all about?" He asked.

Zim eyed him from where he now stood, a few feet away with his arms crossed.  
Dib laughed some more before he was actually able to contain his chuckles enough to speak. "Zim…" He gasped. "Zim you don't need to be tied to a table to get a blood sample!" He clenched his side and tried to prevent himself from laughing more, because it was making Zim look at him more and more suspiciously. He finally was able to get a hold of himself and sat upright again. He forced himself to be serious.

"I suppose you're never going to let me live that down are you?" He asked.

When Zim just continued to glare at him, Dib sighed.

"Look, it was stupid, Zim, I admit it. But we weren't friends back then and we were certainly not sleeping with each other." He held out a hand towards Zim, open palmed, so show he meant no harm. "I'm sorry. I was out of line. I told you, I was going to let you go…"

Zim merely eyeballed his hand, but didn't take it. "But you still DID it," the alien hissed.

Dib looked repetitive and withdrew his hand. This was one of Zim's fears. He knew that. What he didn't know was the extent of Zim's fear. It was so engrained in his that even with the increased logic he got back with the removal of his pak he couldn't quite bring himself to forgive and forget the incident.

Dib sighed and looked out over the city. He supposed this would always be a stumbling block in their relationship. Though he wondered why really, as he and Zim did far worse to one another over the years…

He was almost startled when a hand reached out towards him. Zim's tiny hand gripped his shoulder. He came around and peered into Dib's eyes.

"I will let you take your blood sample," Zim practically hissed at him. "But ONLY if you promise to fix my base DIB."

Dib blinked. "Of course," He replied, smiling slightly. "That was part of the deal wasn't-"

Zim cut him off. "And when you are DONE fixing my base, HUMAN," The alien pronounced. "You will be the first creature that I will destroy when I take over this smelly planet for ME!"

Dib stared at his little lover for a long moment, then threw back his head and laughed for the second time in as many minutes. That was more like the Zim he knew before. "We'll see _alien_," He replied mildly. "I might still have some tricks up my sleeves."

"I WILL triumph," Zim said haughtily. With that he crawled into the human's lap and curled up against him, laying his head against Dib's chest. He smiled to himself as he listened to the sound of Dib's heart beat. For the first time in months he felt content.


	13. Finale and Author's Note

Dears Friends and Readers,

It has been 6 years since I last touched Finale. This fanfic was admittedly going to be a long epic.

I had the chance to reread this fanfic today. I was taken at how much of a completed 'love' story it was by its self. Not only did the end of Chapter 10b come across as an ending for me, Chapter 11 did as well with minor editing. So, I went back and 'fixed' the end of Chapter 11.

It is now the definite end of "Finale".

I know this is disappointing to some of you. I want to apologize for any disappointment and express my gratitude for the encouraging reviews over the years.

I remember having a lot of fun writing this fanfic, and at the time it was the longest single thing that I had ever written. It represented a whole lot of firsts for me.

I did find an old file today with a tiny bit of continuation in it. There was a very small scene that stuck out and made me smile, which follows directly after Chapter 11. I've included it here in hopes it will make you smile as well:

.

The school year passed without much incident, including Dib's 15th birthday. The sickeningly hot summer was the time that the human and alien pair got the most amount of work done on Zim's base. A couple of floors opened up and during one particularly triumphant day in August they managed to convince the computer to come back on line.

The computer instantly asked to be shut down again after assessing the damage done to it's circuitry.

Dib could hear Zim ranting at his computer from several rooms away. The fact that Zim was screaming incoherently at an inanimate object made Dib smile to himself.

The base repairs stalemated after that. Dib found that he had to finally accept that Zim's technology would never be the same again. With the computer working, it was able to manufacture basic items for Zim's survival, like clothing, food, and minor electrical equipment, and even give them air conditioning in a couple of rooms. But the computer could not make large items like it had before. In fact it couldn't even rebuild the house, which now had boarded up windows thanks to Dib and was still a mostly collapsed, blackened gutted hole of a building.

It had been disappointing at first, until Dib remembered he still had the remains of Tak's spaceship. With the base computer at least functional, he figured that they could try to splice in the two Irken technologies together. They moved the spaceship, bit by bit, down that shaft into the underground labyrinth. There they cleaned out a larger area… one where Zim's Voot Runner had once sat during repairs, and started setting up the ship again.

They soon discovered it still had Dib's annoying personality replacement inside of it from the end of grade 5, (Dib thought it had completely deleted it's self, but he was wrong.) Between the two of them they were able to neutralize it. That wasn't before Zim managed to comment how much he didn't miss Dib's old self, as the spaceship whined and moaned about how much his life sucked.

That cracked Dib up. "I seem to remember you saying you hated me for changing. Remember, Zim? Back at Christmas?" the teenager pointed out.

Zim pulled a face. "No," he replied abruptly.

Dib grinned at him. "Oh but you did Zim. You did. What was it again? 'You've _changed_ Dib. I don't _like_ it.'"

Zim stuck his head and arm into the headboard and pulled out a bunch of wires.

"Help Zim delete you already," he retorted, chucking the fistful of circuitry at the laughing human.

.

.

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Thanks again, everyone, for reading!


End file.
